Trying to Get Something Going

Chew1e 2015-03-14 18:56:25 UTC #1

Hey guys, i'm from Romania, my name is Cristi( romanian version of Christian but gayer) and I am looking for some advice on what to do next. I am about 193 cm tall and I weigh in at approximately 85 kg.

The first picture is me about 4 years ago, when I wasn't hitting the gym but I was doing some home workouts if I remember correctly.
The second picture is me around 4 months ago, when the local gym closed. I live in an extremely small town, where we only have one gym, with basic gear, nothing fancy. At that moment my weight was around 75-78 kg, and I have been working out for around 8 months ( I know, right?), without taking any kind of supplements. I wasn't even close to hitting my macros per day, and my work ethic was pretty shit, I was playing some table tennis between sets, not finishing my workouts and shit like that.

As you can see, my body shape is pretty shitty, because I have some huge ass female hips because why not.
As of two weeks ago I started getting back into it, as soon as the gym reopened. Bought some soy protein isolate because animal protein (milk) gives me acne ( with which I have struggled deeply, but got treated with roaccutane), and I take 1 cup (@24 g) when I wake up, and another cup after my workout. I also eat @30 g worth of protein from chicken about every day(i love chicken).

So i basically only work my upper body, because my legs are a bit fucked up from an injury. They are long and my upper body is a bit small compared, so it makes me look a bit weird in my eyes. Anyways, I do chest+triceps, back+biceps and shoulders+abs, and I go to the gym 4-5 times a week, so i finish my last workout, i just start from the beginning again. I do around 4 exercises, 3 sets each with 8-10 reps for chest, back, shoulders, and 3 exercises, with the same configuration, for triceps and biceps. On abs I do more reps but they're not that important to me.

What I want is to make the curve of my hips smaller, or make it seem smaller, and I have no idea what to do. Would appreciate it if u read all that shit, and helped a brother out.

Chew1e 2015-03-14 20:43:41 UTC #2

I had no idea how to add it to the original post, so here is the second photo, from 4 months ago. I'll post a shot of my current state next week.

dagill2 2015-03-15 08:59:46 UTC #3

Wider shoulders and a wider back will make your hips look smaller.

Yogi1 2015-03-15 12:09:13 UTC #4

what's the leg injury?

Ecchastang 2015-03-15 13:34:10 UTC #5

I personally would rather do no protein than soy protein.

dagill2 2015-03-15 14:51:45 UTC #6

I personally would rather do steak protein. It's a bit more difficult to squeeze in a shaker bottle but the taste makes up for it.

Chew1e 2015-03-15 18:28:25 UTC #7

Hey guys thanks for replying. The leg injury was from snowboarding. Tore off a pice of my kneecap and fuked some ligaments up from a torsion-like movement. Tried to work it out without surgery, with the piece of bone still chilling in my knee, that didn't work out so I got surgery. Meanwhile I was relying a lot on my right leg, and that caused problems aswell, my right knee ending up worse than the one i had surgery on. Sooooo yeah it's safe to say neither of my legs are in good shape.
As for the soy protein, at first i read some pretty good reviews, but now when I did more research I found some shady stuff. Should I stop the usage right away? I could also just not use any protein powder, since basically all of them affect acne. I was thinking of at least trying some whey isolate or something first so I see if there's any volcano action on my face.

magick 2015-03-16 00:20:40 UTC #8

Avoid soy protein.

If you want super-bro science- Historically, East Asians eat a lot of soy products. East Asian men are, on average, the least endowed and least muscular of all recognized races.

I blame soy.

goochadamg 2015-03-16 03:28:04 UTC #9

Second picture show some very clear definite progress. Your hips look fine in that picture.

So, hey, you already know where your weaknesses are and what to fix. Unfortunately, execution is the hard part.

Ecchastang 2015-03-16 11:12:20 UTC #10

Get your protein from an animal.

1_Man_Island 2015-03-16 22:12:23 UTC #11

Do Romanian dudes regularly hang out in fields in the middle of the woods w/ out shirts?

Chew1e 2015-03-17 13:06:50 UTC #12

Yeah communism hit us pretty hard. It's actually a river that people used to go to because we ain't got no pools in our town that's practically a village. I lol'd pretty hard tho you're a funny guy.
On topic, I basically gave up using protein in general, not gonna risk acne for some gains, but i'm gonna try to eat well.

Chris_Colucci 2015-03-17 16:23:17 UTC #13

Doing zero leg training is only going to let them get worse. A smart leg plan should definitely be part of your training. Ben Bruno had knee surgery a few years go and has written a ton about how to build strong, healthy legs.
https://www.T-Nation.com/all-articles/authors/ben-bruno

Yep, drop the soy protein immediately. A quality whey protein shouldn't give you issues, but it sounds like you might be prone to acne, so it's not 100% necessary. Like the guys have said, fix your diet to include more animal protein. Eggs (whole eggs, not just egg whites) are usually pretty cheap and are just about the perfect food.

Hips are bones, so they're not going anywhere. All you can do is drop fat from your waistline and increase your muscle to build an "X-frame" (wide upper body, narrow waist, big legs) as best you can. Shoulder width, arm size, back width, and quad size.

So, basically add muscle all over. Nothing ground-breaking there. But, again, get on a well-designed plan that trains everything including your legs. Even with your injury, there's got to be some stuff you can do - lunges, step-ups, maybe deadlifts or Romanian deads (but I guess that would be every deadlift for you), figure out what you can do and then incorporate it.

You don't look too bad at all in the second pic, but since that was four months ago, I'm definitely wondering what shape you're in now.

Chew1e 2015-03-18 18:16:15 UTC #14

Thanks for the reply Chris. I am all up for getting into a well-design workout plan, and the source you've provided is great but he has so many articles and I have no idea which one to follow. Having little to no experience with smart plans, I don't know where to start tbh. It would be of great help if someone could provide such a workout plan, so I can see and understand it's structure, and afterwards modelling it according to my needs.

1_Man_Island 2015-03-19 13:39:12 UTC #15

Not really the best idea. Have you tried skim milk? I would assume it's the fat that causes the breakouts. You could look into lower fat protein sources: lean cuts of beef (best), chicken breasts/fish (cheaper), some cuts of pork, heck.... even going a vegetarian route w/ beans and rice would be a better option than just giving up.

It's a process; try something out for a week or two. If you're breaking out, trade some of the fat (I don't know, 10g) for some more carbs (maybe 20g). If you're still breaking out, keep adjusting in the same manner until you figure out what works for you.

You'll need to take the same approach to legs. Try an exercise for a workout or two. If it's hurting stop, research the form to make sure you're doing it right when you get home, try again, if it still hurts, try something else. I had a pulled quad tendon in my right leg. For about a year, I had to just focus on hamstrings and calves, w/ the occasional leg extension. I then began leg presses, then bodyweight squats, goblet squats, front squats, and finally back squats.

How strong are you in bench and overhead press?

Chew1e 2015-03-19 16:12:37 UTC #16

1 Man Island wrote:

Chew1e wrote:

On topic, I basically gave up using protein in general, not gonna risk acne for some gains, but i'm gonna try to eat well.

Not really the best idea. Have you tried skim milk? I would assume it's the fat that causes the breakouts. You could look into lower fat protein sources: lean cuts of beef (best), chicken breasts/fish (cheaper), some cuts of pork, heck.... even going a vegetarian route w/ beans and rice would be a better option than just giving up.

It's a process; try something out for a week or two. If you're breaking out, trade some of the fat (I don't know, 10g) for some more carbs (maybe 20g). If you're still breaking out, keep adjusting in the same manner until you figure out what works for you.

You'll need to take the same approach to legs. Try an exercise for a workout or two. If it's hurting stop, research the form to make sure you're doing it right when you get home, try again, if it still hurts, try something else. I had a pulled quad tendon in my right leg. For about a year, I had to just focus on hamstrings and calves, w/ the occasional leg extension. I then began leg presses, then bodyweight squats, goblet squats, front squats, and finally back squats.

How strong are you in bench and overhead press?

I meant that i was giving up on protein powders, not protein altogether. Also, I bench around 90kg 1 rep, as for overhead press, I don't really do records, because of the high probability ( at least for me ) of snapping some shit. I usually do around 10 reps with 25 kg in a normal set.

LoRez 2015-03-19 17:32:12 UTC #17

Have you tried using Lactaid with your protein powder? This could help.

There are also lots of different protein powders, some which are more "pure" than others. Even so, with a very pure whey isolate, certain flavors give me issues (like cookies and cream). Other flavors are fine.

Just takes some trial and error.

Chris_Colucci 2015-03-19 18:40:26 UTC #18

Something like this is a basic start:
http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/big_boy_basics
The exercises aren't carved in stone, but the general setup (movement type) and set/rep scheme is.

As far as the leg stuff, these should help fine tune what to do:
https://www.T-Nation.com/training/9-training-strategies-for-knee-pain
https://www.T-Nation.com/training/knee-friendly-quad-builders
https://www.T-Nation.com/training/single-leg-training-modifications
Like 1-Man said, it's a bit of trial and error as to what you can handle, but definitely try some of them out.