Progress Pics - Critique

Size=everything

Hey,

So got some new pics

First one is front, as you can see my right bicep is smaller than my left so I need to address that.

Second one is back, I've been trying to bring up my lower back just wondering if you can see *any* improvement. I also tried to execute a pose I was having trouble with just wondering if I got it??

thanks

Esse85

Are you taking gear?

Dragan

Esse85 wrote: »

Are you taking gear?

WTF? The guy is like , 18 , and your suprised he has acne?

Dude, you need a little bit of lower pec work, a little bit of upper, and some mid back thickness would help hugely. Thats what i would work on right now anyway.

Pen1987

best excercise for lower peck work?

Dragan

Pen1987 wrote: »

best excercise for lower peck work?

Dips with a good lean in them or decline bench if you can't do the dips.

Esse85

Dragan wrote: »

WTF? The guy is like , 18 , and your suprised he has acne?

Dude, you need a little bit of lower pec work, a little bit of upper, and some mid back thickness would help hugely. Thats what i would work on right now anyway.

Looks like more than natural acne to me, its a fair question to ask.

Vegeta

Esse85 wrote: »

Looks like more than natural acne to me, its a fair question to ask.

nah man I have seen much worse on guys I went to school with.

g'em

Someone is brave enough to put up pictures and the main topic of focus is bacne, something that virtually every guy (and lots of girls) suffer from at some point during their lives? Get back OT pls.

crotalus667

g'em wrote: »

Someone is brave enough to put up pictures and the main topic of focus is bacne, something that virtually every guy (and lots of girls) suffer from at some point during their lives? Get back OT pls.

+1 love the back shot your looking great

Ps

I look far more spotty after a waxing

rgiller

To OP: what kind of work are you doing for your traps? Can't seem to get mine going with shoulder shrugs...

Dragan

rgiller wrote: »

To OP: what kind of work are you doing for your traps? Can't seem to get mine going with shoulder shrugs...

Shrugs are great if your doing them right and can move a shed load of weight.

Other than that cleans, deads and farmers walks will build big meaty traps.

Degsy

rgiller wrote: »

To OP: what kind of work are you doing for your traps? Can't seem to get mine going with shoulder shrugs...

Are you lifting your traps straight up and down or are you rolling your shoulders?

Vegeta

Dragan wrote: »

Shrugs are great if your doing them right and can move a shed load of weight.

Other than that cleans, deads and farmers walks will build big meaty traps.

I know I know, stupid general question here. Ans is probably "Do what works for you"

Farmers walk is not like other exercises as you don't do reps, so how much weight should one carry and for how many steps.

For example I usually put half my body weight (split into 2 hands) and walk over and back in my garden until it gets quite sore on both grip n traps. This is quite a lot of walking. I do this for 3 sets

Should i aim for heavier weight with less steps

Transform

Really just keep progressing your deadlift will in general work best for traps.

I do some farmers walking etc but never any shrugs etc as deadlifts and most back work hits his quite well.

Size=everything - looking good and just keep getting stonger/bigger without gaining fat.

Mickk

Esse85 wrote: »

Looks like more than natural acne to me, its a fair question to ask.

\

In fairness it is a fair question to ask and Esse85 didn't say anything about the acne, they could just as easily been talking about the muscle the OP has gained. I was on steroids at 18 and I wish I hadn't, would have been good to have a place like this to get real opinions and possibly cop myself on...

Size=everything

Esse85 wrote: »

Are you taking gear?

Hey mate,

No I'm not taking gear! To be honest I'd never want to inject myself with anything and wouldn't even know where to look for gear. Also from my understanding taking it in your teenage years can mean you may get erectile dsyfunction for life that little fact put me off ever wanting to try it!

Size=everything

Dragan wrote: »

WTF? The guy is like , 18 , and your suprised he has acne?

Dude, you need a little bit of lower pec work, a little bit of upper, and some mid back thickness would help hugely. Thats what i would work on right now anyway.

Hey thanks I'm trying to bring it up now been alternating between my chest routine now starting with incline, then decline then flat rather than flat,incline then decline hopefully that helps!

And yeah I get bad bacne I don't really mind it though better on my back than on my face!!! Its nowhere near as bad as some of my mates though but they just take accutane so might look into that.

Size=everything

rgiller wrote: »

To OP: what kind of work are you doing for your traps? Can't seem to get mine going with shoulder shrugs...

For traps I get 2 50kg dumbells and do shrugs, 4 sets of 12.

I don't really like using the bar for shrugs and found dumbells more effective hope that helps

Size=everything

Transform wrote: »

Size=everything - looking good and just keep getting stonger/bigger without gaining fat.

Thanks though I've decided to start eating carbs again so I can get a bit more bulk so I'm sure the fats going to come back

Size=everything

Mickk wrote: »

In fairness it is a fair question to ask and Esse85 didn't say anything about the acne, they could just as easily been talking about the muscle the OP has gained. I was on steroids at 18 and I wish I hadn't, would have been good to have a place like this to get real opinions and possibly cop myself on...

Yeah I read up a lot on steroids out of curiousity but I came to the conclusion that I'm never going to try them I feel i've made good progress without them and if I up my game I don't see why that can't continue.

Anyways I'm used to the steroid comments as people in my school like to spread the rumour that I'm on juice but what they don't know is I spend literally all day eating red meat, like I haven't been out on the piss in 2 months now and have been eating religously every 2 hours. I have been working so hard in the gym at times I've felt like passing out.


Anyways I'm on the booze tonight because I'm finished school for good! so kind of excited about that

Size=everything

Just want to thank everyone for the responses so far, I'm going to work hard to bring my chest up

If anyone has anymore comments to add please feel free to do so!

Esse85

Size=everything wrote: »

Hey mate,

No I'm not taking gear! To be honest I'd never want to inject myself with anything and wouldn't even know where to look for gear. Also from my understanding taking it in your teenage years can mean you may get erectile dsyfunction for life that little fact put me off ever wanting to try it!

Thats cool man, thanks for answering.

As im sure you've heard loads before, great physique and good luck competing.

colmconn

Size=everything wrote: »

Anyways I'm used to the steroid comments as people in my school like to spread the rumour that I'm on juice but what they don't know is I spend literally all day eating red meat, like I haven't been out on the piss in 2 months now and have been eating religously every 2 hours. I have been working so hard in the gym at times I've felt like passing out.

you've probably got the best "steroid" on your side: youth, make the most of it and keep up the hard work, and to hell with what other people say. you could make phenomenal progress over the next few years and still only be in your early 20's.

Size=everything wrote: »

Anyways I'm on the booze tonight because I'm finished school for good! so kind of excited about that

so leaving cert in a couple of weeks then?

KERPAL

Absolute beast, keep it up, NEVer give it up.

Ignore the jealous ones on the gear.

uprooted shane

Size=everything wrote: »

Yeah I read up a lot on steroids out of curiousity but I came to the conclusion that I'm never going to try them I feel i've made good progress without them and if I up my game I don't see why that can't continue.

Anyways I'm used to the steroid comments as people in my school like to spread the rumour that I'm on juice but what they don't know is I spend literally all day eating red meat, like I haven't been out on the piss in 2 months now and have been eating religously every 2 hours. I have been working so hard in the gym at times I've felt like passing out.


Anyways I'm on the booze tonight because I'm finished school for good! so kind of excited about that

the hats off to ya!!!!

keep it up man, looking very good in my oppinion!

crotalus667

Size=everything wrote: »

Also from my understanding taking it in your teenage years can mean you may get erectile dsyfunction for life

I dont think it put's you at any higher risk of erectile dysfunction than if you take it later on ( i think that manly happens when people mess up on the pct after long cycles ) How ever I have heard that taking it before your 21 can shut off your growth platelets (im not sure exactly what that means but I assume it means it will stunt your growth)

I'm used to the steroid comments as people in my school like to spread the rumour that I'm on juice

I'd take it as a complement (and then Id buy the tshirt)

Seraphina

Size=everything wrote: »

they just take accutane so might look into that.

don't bother, side affects can be horrible and could impair training

bacne considered, i'd still lick you

Hanley

You're in good shape. Nice going.

Now... before you get TOO big a head...

-upper back still overpowers everything else from behind, but you weren't going to fix that in a few weeks (the last spread looks good tho this time!!!)
-back thickness is something to work on, get your deadlift stronger, row lots.
-arms could probably do with coming on some too

Honestly, you're in really good shape for your age. You're not going to make really visible improvements in weeks, it takes months, and longer!! Just keeping plugging away on the big lifts, as you get stronger your body will have no choice but to thicken up!!

Al_Fernz

S=E,

Still looking solid.

However, you've lost a bit of size since the original pictures up in your "18 years old, Am I strong?" Maybe it was just the light. What was your weight before and after you started zero-carbing? Also, what was the impact on your lift numbers?

colmconn

crotalus667 wrote: »

I dont think it put's you at any higher risk of erectile dysfunction than if you take it later on ( i think that manly happens when people mess up on the pct after long cycles ) How ever I have heard that taking it before your 21 can shut off your growth platelets (im not sure exactly what that means but I assume it means it will stunt your growth)

platelets (aka thrombocytes) are component of blood and play a very important role in clot formation.

growth or epiphyseal plates, on the other hand, are the portion of the bone at which longitudinal growth of the bone occurs.

rgiller

Size=everything wrote: »

For traps I get 2 50kg dumbells and do shrugs, 4 sets of 12.

I don't really like using the bar for shrugs and found dumbells more effective hope that helps

Now it makes sense: I'm doing 15kg in each arm in 3 sets of 12. Still, I did hear that you should be lifting half your body weight (half of 80kg for me) in shrugs so it would appear I'm not too far off, but you're lifting a lot more than what I've heard suggested.

By the way, what is a farmer's walk?

crotalus667

rgiller wrote: »

By the way, what is a farmer's walk?

Dragan

rgiller wrote: »

Now it makes sense: I'm doing 15kg in each arm in 3 sets of 12. Still, I did hear that you should be lifting half your body weight (half of 80kg for me) in shrugs so it would appear I'm not too far off, but you're lifting a lot more than what I've heard suggested.

The same as with any other lift you should lift as much as you can safely and with good form. I'm done shrugs with 60 kilos dumbells, 240 kilos on a dead rack....whatever, it doesn't matter. The same as any other lift you need to stay progressing.

Cookpasbabtridg

apologies but what does the farmers walk do exactly? build the shoulders?

Hanley

rgiller wrote: »

Now it makes sense: I'm doing 15kg in each arm in 3 sets of 12. Still, I did hear that you should be lifting half your body weight (half of 80kg for me) in shrugs so it would appear I'm not too far off, but you're lifting a lot more than what I've heard suggested.

By the way, what is a farmer's walk?

Shrugs are a weird beast. They're an exercise you can load ALOT of weight up on and still do them quite well, much more so than you think you could handle. I know my traps didn't start to grow until I added some plates to the bar.

Of course on the flip side you've people who go too far and claim these big numbers while probably moving the bar an inch or two!! It's all a matter of balance really. Just keep loading weight to the bar until you can't do full shrugs...

As for farmers walks, mostly grip and traps. But again, you need to go HEAVY.

Dragan

Cookpasbabtridg wrote: »

apologies but what does the farmers walk do exactly? build the shoulders?

core, legs, glutes, back, shoulder, grip, arms. effects will vary over the body but nearly everything has to work.

Degsy

Hanley wrote: »

Of course on the flip side you've people who go too far and claim these big numbers while probably moving the bar an inch or two!! It's all a matter of balance really. Just keep loading weight to the bar until you can't do full shrugs...

Agreed.to do shrugs properly you need to bring your shoulders almost up to your ears with your arms straight.

crotalus667

Degsy wrote: »

Agreed.to do shrugs properly you need to bring your shoulders almost up to your ears with your arms straight.

I recall reading "keep a slight bend at the elbow" also you can tell if the weight is too much for you if you start to bend your elbows more to raise the weight

Degsy

crotalus667 wrote: »

I recall reading "keep a slight bend at the elbow" also you can tell if the weight is too much for you if you start to bend your elbows more to raise the weight

Your supposed to be isolating your traps,not your arms.If you cant bring your traps up without bringing your arms into play you've got too much weight.Most people cant do shrugs to save thier lives,they either try to lift too much weight and barely move it or they do this elaborate rolling routine which can damage your shoulders.

Hanley

crotalus667 wrote: »

I recall reading "keep a slight bend at the elbow" also you can tell if the weight is too much for you if you start to bend your elbows more to raise the weight

And what happens when the bar straightens out that bend in your elbows...?? PING!!! You bicep says no more and decides to curl up into a little ball.

I personally know two people this has happened to and heard of it happening to ALOT more. You shouldn't be making the effort to absolutely lock your elbows out dead straight, but when you take the bar at arms length it'll pull your arms to where they should be. That's pretty much the position you want to maintain.

I know where you're coming from with an increasing bend being a sign of cheating, but when you start to move heavier weights there's no way you'll be able to bend your arms anyway.