Making good enough improvements?

Hey guys, just wanted to give a little update and subject myself to some flaming. But not too much flaming so I won't metion anything about my diet. But this is my results of training on machine weights rather than free (which I had always done before). Just an update on my stats.

18 years old
5'8"
182 lbs.
16" arms (no laughy)
11.5" forearms
42" chest
25" legs

I'd love to get my arms bigger, but they don't seem to want to grow at the rate I want them to. The first pic was taken in June, and the second in December.

def leaner then when you first posted. starting to get some nice shoulders too. just keep at it!

Good job so far! it looks like you could use a bit more work on your delts and lats.....it would really bring out a better taper to your body.

Keep up the hard work!

You look a lot leaner bro.......... Keep up the progress!

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Originally Posted by Justincase

Good job so far! it looks like you could use a bit more work on your delts and lats.....it would really bring out a better taper to your body.

Keep up the hard work!

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Yea I agree, work on upper body, arms, chest, lats, traps... get a V-shape base going, the hourglass shape doesnt work for guys very well. I cant remember when I seen someone's love handles wider then rib cage but the lats develop as fast as any fast growing muscle in body. Chin ups on overhead bar, pull down bars on machines and dead lifts get this muscle growing and the lats on back are somewhat visible from front shots and are totally responsible for the V-shape look that 98% of men want to have.

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Originally Posted by Ntpadude

Yea I agree, work on upper body, arms, chest, lats, traps... get a V-shape base going, the hourglass shape doesnt work for guys very well. I cant remember when I seen someone's love handles wider then rib cage.

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:lol:

Yeah I hate that. But in reality those love handles are pretty solid, and I'm not sure why. It is the only part of my body that I wish would go catabolic. Maybe its a genetic thing? I've certainly been trying to decrease their size, and avoiding crunches that involve me twisting so that maybe they will decrease in size. Thanks for the advice either way. I noticed you didn't say shoulders, at least I'm doing sumthin' right :banana:

Just a quick question, any ideas on what my goal weight should be for my frame? I'm actually around 185 now (5'8"). I was thinking 200-210, but do you guys think that's a little high? Just wondering.

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Originally Posted by teenpowerlift

Just a quick question, any ideas on what my goal weight should be for my frame? I'm actually around 185 now (5'8"). I was thinking 200-210, but do you guys think that's a little high? Just wondering.

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since its your goal weight, it should be whatever you want to weigh
opinions vary on the ideal weight

you definatly got leaner over the 2 pics
but i noticed, 16 inch arms with 11.5 inch forearms? i'd start doing direct forearm training and get them closer to the size of your arm, like 14 inches or so
even heavy deads without straps will add a lot of size to your forearms

keep up the good work

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Originally Posted by teenpowerlift

Just a quick question, any ideas on what my goal weight should be for my frame? I'm actually around 185 now (5'8"). I was thinking 200-210, but do you guys think that's a little high? Just wondering.

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I'd say the worst thing to do is put a goal weight like say you gotta be 210 lbs before December 1st 2004.... if you do that you are going to gain some muscle and more fat then you need to get there.... just worry about getting yourself in purportion. I didnt say anything about your arms and shoulders because they are way ahead and probably take you 5 to 6 months to catch other areas up. The deficient areas are all muscles surrounding the rib cage. That is lats on back and pecs on front, I dont think you need to loose the love handles as much as grow the back and chest to be bigger then the abs area to get that V-shape... once you get purportional, then work on enlarging everything together.

I should talk, In a way I did the same thing and am out of purportion but having been there myself maybe its good to point out to you not to make same mistake. I wanted to grow my back and chest so much then I got what I wanted but left the biceps and delts behind. So now my purportion is 15 inch arms and 45 3/4 inch chest with 33 inch waist. I got the v-shape going, can see my lats poking out from my front profile but my arms should be 16 or 17 inches to match my chest size. You sort of did the exact opposite and concentrated on arms and left the chest and back behind.

Thanks for the help Ntpa, and you actually helped me to realize a few things. Last year, when I was still powerlifting. My arms were barely 15" and my chest was 44", and my legs took over my figure at 27". I never worked my back, lats or anything, other than at competitions when I did deadlift (hated training for deadlift, probably why I only pulled 450). But anyways, after powerlifting was over, I realized I wanted to get a bodybuilder look instead of the powerlifter look. I bought a machine and dropped the free weights, hoping to maintain chest and legs, when increasing my back and arm thickness. Since then I have increased my arms by an 1" (probably because I never worked biceps during powerlifting) and my traps have grown alot, but my lats respond very little. Not only that, but I have lost 2" from my chest, as well as 2" from my legs. So maybe I was a little counter-productive? For my lats I do 4 sets of front pulldowns (facing bar), 4 sets of back pulldowns, and 3 sets of bent over rows. I go as heavy as possible. Any ideas? Again thanx for he help.

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Originally Posted by teenpowerlift

Thanks for the help Ntpa, and you actually helped me to realize a few things. Last year, when I was still powerlifting. My arms were barely 15" and my chest was 44", and my legs took over my figure at 27". I never worked my back, lats or anything, other than at competitions when I did deadlift (hated training for deadlift, probably why I only pulled 450). But anyways, after powerlifting was over, I realized I wanted to get a bodybuilder look instead of the powerlifter look. I bought a machine and dropped the free weights, hoping to maintain chest and legs, when increasing my back and arm thickness. Since then I have increased my arms by an 1" (probably because I never worked biceps during powerlifting) and my traps have grown alot, but my lats respond very little. Not only that, but I have lost 2" from my chest, as well as 2" from my legs. So maybe I was a little counter-productive? For my lats I do 4 sets of front pulldowns (facing bar), 4 sets of back pulldowns, and 3 sets of bent over rows. I go as heavy as possible. Any ideas? Again thanx for he help.

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Pulldown bar and pull down to behind your neck and sometimes recline back and pull towards tummy will work the lats real well and they develop QUICK. Remember to keep weights challenging. I almost lift my self off my seat and sometimes have to use my legs to hold myself down when pulling the pull down bars but I have been real happy with my lat development with pull downs alone.

Lose weight. look leaner. Keep up the good work !

Thnx, and love the screen name (I'm Italian too)

Well look what u have done in the past 6 months.......your pics show some nice change for the better.....at your age just keep doing what u have been doing and u should contionue to see results......key for u will be proper lifting, proper diet(which at your age eat), proper rest, and proper recovery......the only thing from the pics I see might need some work would be your lats, but it's hard to tell from the front shots.....continue the hard work and good luck.

I didn't read the rest of the comments after the one about goal weight. At 5 foot 8, 210 pounds is **** near rediculous. If you want to look good, at 5'8 you could easily do so at 185. A buddy of mine just competed in the NGA natural show here in NY a couple of months ago. He went in at 5'8, 150 pounds. He has 17 3/4 inch arms. He's 24 years old. You'll learn in time that being heavy doesn't have alot to do with having a great physique. Bodybuilding is alot about illusion. Take a long balloon full off air and twist it on each end. Envision that that is your muscle and notice how much larger the middle of the balloon looks now that the ends are tight. Do that to your physique, and you'll look 10 times larger while actually dropping weight.

Thanks for the replies Krul and BornBad. And if I can look huge at 185 then I'd be more than happy with that. I just thought that since that's what I weigh now, that I should aim for a higher weight, but I didn't figure in the fact that my bf is about 16% (guesstimate). Would you guys say that's right? Once I get lean and pack another inch or two on everywhere, I'll probably be sitting around the same weight I am now. I'm not looking for extroidinarily low bf though, I'd be happy with 8-11.

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Originally Posted by teenpowerlift

Thanks for the replies Krul and BornBad. And if I can look huge at 185 then I'd be more than happy with that. I just thought that since that's what I weigh now, that I should aim for a higher weight, but I didn't figure in the fact that my bf is about 16% (guesstimate). Would you guys say that's right? Once I get lean and pack another inch or two on everywhere, I'll probably be sitting around the same weight I am now. I'm not looking for extroidinarily low bf though, I'd be happy with 8-11.

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Go for the look at not a body fat % #.
In your case go for the v-shape, lose the hourglass figure which requires dumping the love handles.

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Originally Posted by nynsb

Go for the look at not a body fat % #.
In your case go for the v-shape, lose the hourglass figure which requires dumping the love handles.

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So that means you look like a 24hourglass?

Where are your pics kid? I bumped 3 threads to the top now to show that all you do is talk **** to other members.

Take a digicam pic so we can see just how **** perfect you portray your sorry @$$ to be.

We're waiting Mr. perfect............

~SC~

Yeah, I thought I was going to be lucky enough to get by without this guy posting his BS, but I guess not. It wouldn't be so bad, but his critiques are the exact same for everybody. If you ask my, I think he is upset that he does not have a body even worth a critique, so he is projecting that anger onto other people. Thank you Mrs. Lumpkin and Psychology 1301. hehe

You guys once again. I am 40 years old this coming May. I played football and wrestled in high school and I have consistently worked out. My workouts consist of FreeWeights and Cardio(Running, Biking, Skating, Cardio Kick Boxing)
I don't have much luck in the adding muscle or losing fat category.
Last Body Comp had me at 200 lbs. 5'10" and 16% BodyFat which is pretty much lumped into 2 gross pairs of lovehandles.
I am looking for love handle solutions and I am wanting to advise younger bodybuilders to watch their lovehandles carefully because they are a bitch to get rid of.

Don't convince yourselves that they will just go away and definitely don't try to convince yourself that they aren't fat.

Anything else you guys need to know about me???