I’ve always been fairly active, but it wasn’t until about three years ago that I decided to take my overall health and fitness level more seriously. I started hitting the weights, tracking nutrition, managing stress, and worked toward developing better sleep habits. At the end of this time, I’ve gone from the physique on the left to the physique on the right. I’m 5’ 10" and weighed 175 lbs in both.
In terms of my long-term goals, I’d like to add 10 lbs of muscle, and drop body fat to the 8-10% range. Of course at the end of the day, it’s more about the look than numbers, but picked these targets so I have some objective measures to track progress.
I’d say my strengths are chest and legs (especially calves, which I’d mainly attribute to genetics), while I need the most work on my shoulders, back, and arms. I’m considering doing a physique competition in the future, using it as motivation to push myself to be my best, than going after a particular placement. Any feedback is welcome!
What does your training program and diet look like? Based on your current physique I would guess you could add 10lbs fairly easily in a year or so with proper diet and training.
Training: I currently lift 5x a week with a Upper / Lower / Rest / Upper / Lower / Upper / Rest split. Each training block lasts 5 weeks, and I increase volume and intensity each week (e.g. Week 1 will have 3 sets at RPE 6-7, and Week 5 will have 5 or 6 sets at RPE 9-10), culminating in an overreaching week. On week 6, I’ll do a deload. Each session has 3-4 compound movements and 3-4 accessory exercises as well.
Nutrition: I cycle both total calories and carbs between training and rest days. My current split is Training: 200P / 530C / 82 F, Rest: 200P / 380C / 100F
I’m about two months out from having done any barbell work due to the gyms being closed, but my previous one rep maxes are B - 230, S - 340, DL - 405. Using bench as an example, my typical progression looks something like:
Week 1 - 180 x 5 x 3
Week 2 - 185 x 5 x 4
Week 3 - 190 x 6 x 4
Week 4 - 195 x 6 x 5
Week 5 - 200 x 6 x 5
If I’m doing higher rep sets, the starting weight is lower, but the progression model is similar. Currently, I’m working out at home and have adjustable DBs that go up to 90 lbs each, so I’m doing the best I can with what I have.
Update after roughly one year - I’m 5’ 10" at around 190, so up over 10 lbs with improved body composition. I’m currently on a cut, trying to get down to around 10% bodyfat.
I think you are a bit above 10 percent. Still lean, but not that lean. Good progress though.
Looks like the wheels are progressing well. You don’t look 190 in the upper body, but you do in the lower body. For me bringing up the upper body involved mostly the compounds, but I also add in direct arms exercises. I’m naturally bigger in the upper body, so ymmv.
Thanks for a feedback after a year, I rarely see this and I think anything that is long term, really shows consistency and focus on your goals.
The progress can be seen, no doubt. My suggestion is to focus more on back and arms.
Great effort, and you inspire me also, I am in my fourties and trying to reach best physique
@mnben87 - thanks for the feedback! And yeah, I totally agree that my upper body doesn’t look like I would weigh 190. Upper body as a whole, particularly arms, have always been slow goings in terms of adding size and strength. Starting TRT seems to have given me somewhat of a boost, but still lots of work to do to get things where I want them to be in terms of physique and strength. I currently hit upper 3x a week with one day being a chest, shoulders, and tris emphasis, a second being back and bis, and a third being full upper body.
On the other hand, leg mass is one of those things that just came naturally/was mostly there even before I got serious about lifting. I’m currently cutting through July with the goal of hitting the 10% BF target there and then lean bulking again.
@hogar - thanks for the comments! Good luck with your goals!
I think I’m going to have to second this. I never would of thought that you were 190lbs at 5’10". It could just be the way the photos are taken. I’m not sure.
Roughly 2 months of bulking done. It’s been a little more of a struggle mentally than I expected to not worry about losing any sort of definition. I’ve gone from 175 to 185 in this span, though I know a lot of that is just glycogen and water weight and not muscle or fat gain.
Work is showing! I just turned 40 a few days ago, and was a little slower on getting back into heavy training. Have you had any bloodwork done? My wife and I did so at the same time about 6 months ago and results got me on path of TRT, which has really amplified my progress in terms of bulking up lean muscle and overall body composition.
