Teen's Road to Physique Competition

Could always try the pec deck before your flat bench to pre exhaust and get some feeling in your chest, obviously you won’t hit very good weights on your flat because of fatigue but should have a better connection.

Also the you don’t have a thick or blocky mid section, you just not got wide enough top end yet to give the illusion, and just not lean enough. Don’t worry though, keep it up and it will come

Good luck

1 Like

This seems like pretty damn good amount of volume, man. I’m always amazed at the guys that will do 5 or 6 biceps exercises in a session…

If you fall short of a rep-range, don’t worry about it. You’ll hit that rep range next time. The name of the game is failure and progression right now. Also, for a ‘beginner’ routine, I’d say this is great exercise sequencing.

Out of curiosity, how long did this workout take you?

I did not have my eyes set on competing anytime soon, I agree that my physique is nowhere near ready for that, I guess I’m just overthinking the little things.

An hour tops, for the first movement of each body part the suggested rest time was long, anywhere from 2-5 minutes. Then the second movement is a more moderate rest time, 90 seconds about and the final movement is short, 20-60 seconds, usually 45 seconds for me.

1 Like

Probably another question that is overthinking, but for my legs, I plan on continuing to back squat, traditionally I have low-bar squatted, should I switch to more of a high-bar, Tom Platz-like squat in order to more emphasize the quads, given that Dr. Hyght has the back squat as a quad movement in the template or is continuing to low bar squat ok?

I’d say, at this point in your training, to try both versions and pick whichever one feels more natural and/or comfortable and just go with it.

1 Like

so today was back and abs and it was quite the workout.

We started with pullups
bwx10, bw+10x9, bw+10x7, bw+10x6
Was surprised how when I really focused and slowed down the movement I could feel it in my lats. I’m used to doing these for reps for wrestling, so slowing it down especially on the negative allowed me to feel it more.

Then DB rows
60x10, 65x10, 70x8, 70x8
Grip started to feel a little slippery on reps 7 and 8, so I was losing the feeling in my lat so I called those sets there. Really made sure to get a stretch at the bottom of the movement. I like this alot.

Barbell Row
95x12, 105x12, 115x9
I did not like these at all. My lower back got super pumped at this point, so that might have taken away from it, but I could not feel these in my lats at all, I took the negative so slowly and tried for the stretch, and also my biceps were fatigued from yesterday, so they started to give out here as well.

Lat pulldown
85x10,70x13,70x13,70x12
This was the pump movement as we went short rest on these. I used a thumbless grip, and really squeezed at the bottom and felt these directly in my lats. I allowed the bar to go back up super slowly and got a full stretch at the top. These were good.

Hanging leg raises
bwx3x10
Grip was starting to go, took the lowering portion really slowly

Frog kicks
bwx3x20
Abs got pumped quickly with short rest here

Definitely need to replace the barbell rows, will look into alternatives. Chest and biceps are super sore from yesterday, which is scary because I didn’t even use heavy weights. Still trying to work on the MMC. Loving it so far!

Traditional barbell rows don’t do it for me either. I do get a lot from t-bar rows, though. Additionally, I found these articles to be quite helpful in replacing the barbell row:

Or, of course, you can attempt to drop the weight further on the barbell rows and see if you start feeling it with lower weight before ditching it altogether.

That’s the thing is I already had the weight pretty light, I will look into those variations you gave me, and maybe give the traditional barbell row another shot.

Shoulders, triceps, and abs were up today. It actually went really well. The MMC came pretty easy here, I didn’t have to think it about it too much, just slowing down the movements allowed me to feel pretty much every single exercise in the target muscle, especially the triceps.

Military Press
95x5, 105x5, 110x5, 115x5
Just took the eccentric really slow, felt good for my “strength” movement of the day

DB lateral raise
10’sx12, 15’sx12, 20’sx12, 20’sx12
Really tried to focus on lifting the weight up with my side delt. Squeezed for a second at the top, lowered under complete control, and dead stopped at the bottom to eliminate any chance of me swinging the weight up.

Arnold press
30’sx12, 30’sx10, 30’sx10
With only 45 seconds rest in between sets, the pump in my shoulders was unreal. They were screaming from rep 2 on. I didn’t really focus on controlling the lowering phase, I more just repped these out. Not sure if that is permissible or not, but I still felt it in my shoulders.

Close grip bench press
65x10, 85x10, 95x10
My triceps were already a little fatigued from the shoulder work. For these I took a pretty narrow false grip, lowered it very slowly, paused on my chest, and exploded up, flexing my triceps hard at the top. I felt a pump even with the 65 pounds.

Overhead extension with a DB
35x12, 35x12, 35x9
My favorite movement today. I lowered it behind my head very slowly, feeling the stretch in my triceps, and then exploded the weight up, again flexing my triceps at the top. After the second set of these, my triceps were pumped to the point, I couldn’t even flex them.

Machine triceps press
50x15, 70x15, 90x15
The pumping movement for the triceps. Press down hard, flexing at the bottom and fought the weight back to the top.

Leg raises
bwx4x12
Hip flexors are tight at, need to stretch them out.

Felt great today, easy MMC here, looking forward to this day from now on!

1 Like

Be sure to get a lot of before pics…I just have a feeling you’re going to want them in a year or two…just sayin’.

1 Like

I will get on that ASAP

1 Like

To wrap up my first week of the new training style, we had legs today, and holy crap, I am sore typing this now. For some context, the only leg focused movements I have done are low bar squats and deadlifts, and usually for sets of no higher than 5 reps. I can’t remember the last time I went through such a grueling workout.

Before I begin with the workout itself, I want to preface it with the fact that I have been watching and learning the whole bodybuilding style of training from Benjamin Pakulski. In terms of form and trying to isolate the muscle you are targeting when working out. I watched a squat video so I could learn what he teaches for that movement, considering my squat was more of a powerlifting squat. Given this, the weights I used were extremely less than loads I am used to using, and my legs are still on fire.

High Bar Back squats
135x12, 185x12, 205x7, 205x7, 215x6
Weights extremely lighter than what I could handle usually. Based on what Pakulski was teaching, I squatted high bar and focused breaking at my knees to target my quads more. I descended into the whole very slowly controlling the weight all the way down, and at the bottom, I contracted my quads and glutes, like he says to do, and exploded back up as fast as I could. I did not use the stretch reflex at the boot, as I didn’t dive bomb into the hole. This was gruesome, honestly, I had a quad pump after my first set with 135, and by the fifth set, I couldn’t even feel it, my legs were just wobbly.

Leg extensions
110x12, 110x 10 110x9, 110x10
I squeezed my quad as hard as I Could at the top, lowered the weight slowly and repeated. Quads were crazy pumped after this. When I finished these I was walking like a baby deer, wobbling a little bit, have not felt that in a while.

SLDL
135x10, 155x10, 175x10, 200x6
Just felt weird with quads being pumped. But I got a nice stretch on the way down, and exploded up, squeezing my glutes at the top. Felt like I was going to tear my hamstring, I am assuming that is the stretch.

Lying leg curl
50x15, 70x10, 70x9
Exploded the weight up, squeezed hamstrings at the top, and fought the weight all the way down to the stretched position. Got a lot of blood into my hamstrings.

DB standing Calf raises
70’sx12, 75’sx12, 80’sx12, 85’sx10
My grip gave out before my calves on the last set. But I would raise up, pause for a second and squeeze the heck out of my calves and then lower.

Horizontal calf press machine
90x15, 110x15, 130x12
With the shortened rest my calves were on fire. Definitely was walking funny as I left the gym.

As usual, if you guys have any comments, advice, feedback, whatever, always chime in. I am here to learn enjoy reading your guy’s comments.

Pay no attention to my tongue, I also only had three seconds to pose. Got to love photos on mac

What is the general consensus on the book Burn the Fat feed Muscle for diet? I feel like I need to step up my diet, and I have seen @BrickHead talk very highly of Tom Venuto. Just not sure if I need to stress the minutia at this point. I’ve just been eating 3 meals/day, based on john Berardi’s meal plan guide. Just like throwing around ideas.

Also two weeks into this new style of training, I can’t wait for the 6 week mark, I figure every 6 weeks is a good amount of time to reexamine my physique and make adjustments from there!

Well from the looks of him I think he is someone who knows how it’s done. :grinning::+1:

1 Like

Still on the grind? How’s the training going?

Yes, I’ve just been sticking to the training program really. I’ve been working really hard on forming the MMC, and actually was able to get my chest pretty sore last Monday on chest day. I’ve been watching a lot of Ben pakulski videos on how to properly work the muscle you are trying to work. For example, I never get sore from benching, especially in my chest, And I was successfully able to feel the movement in my chest. In other news, I was able to hit a 315 squat beltless this time, on Friday, and it moved a lot faster than the previous time I touched that weight, which is nice to know my lifts are still getting stronger as well. But other than that, I’ve just been putting my head down and working. Trying to read up more on nutrition so I can apply some knowledge to my nutrition. Otherwise, everything is going well! @IronAndMetal

1 Like

Ok so I know it has been quite a while and this is probably long overdue, but I have honestly just been keeping my head down and training. I have been running a 4-day per week daily undulating per-iodized split, with reverse pyramid training for my 6 priority movements. I run the cycle in 4 week waves, varying their rep scheme every week and taking the 4th week off from the gym and just partaking in other forms of exercise. The workouts rotate in an a/b fashion with a being squat bench and rows and b being dead lift, overhead press and pull ups. The weeks alternate the days based on a high rep/low rep day. Week 1 high rep day is 15 reps and low rep day is 8 reps. Week 2 is 12 and 5 reps respectively and week 3 is 8 reps and 3 reps respectively, and the cycle resets. A sample day would be say 230x15 on squats, then drop the weight to say 205, hit a set one rep short of failure and then drop again to say 185 and repeat. This RPT carries over to all the other lifts in a similar fashion. On high rep days I rest 60-90 seconds between sets and on low rep days I rest 3 minutes. So far I have gotten my squat to 330x3, bench to 190x3 and dead-lift to 415x1. As well as my OHP to 135x3, row to 210x3 and pull ups to 205x3. I am roughly 159 pounds and will post the pictures to see where my physique is at. I would love input as to what I should do from here, with the end goal still being of competing. If I should cut or continue this sort of bulk and any other input will all be soaked up by me and given great weight. Thank you guys, the pictures should follow this post.

@IronAndMetal @BrickHead @robstein @The_Mighty_Stu