Experienced Newbie...

[tbody66]

Okay, I had been lifting for eleven years, laid out for 18 mos. and got back in six weeks ago. Winter time so I started with a bulking cycle, even though I'm already higher bf% then I want to be. I had been checking out several sights on supplementation/training/steroids and really found this one by far more informative than all others. I mostly admired the people who posted pictures since that takes some guts.

I want some honest critique and some helpful pointers. Early pictures are from november 2nd, I'm 5' 6" tall, 38 years old. I weigh 170# with 17.7% bf in early shots. The second pics were taken on November 27th,(that's right, only 25 days later). I weigh 189# with 19.2% bf. Starting measurements were 14.25" upper arm, 42" chest, 16" neck and a max bench of 225#. Second pics show 15.75" upper arm, 46" chest and 17" neck with a max bench of 300#.

I have no leg shots, but I do train them. They are still very far behind my upper body, I think, and I can not get my hams to respond at all. Well, some pics and background as an intro. All comments welcome.

[*Narkissos*]

If you have been training consistenly for 11years.. getting back to the point u were before the 18month lay-off should be attainable naturally..and it'll happen quickly (muscle-memory).

I think u should try to reduce your bodyfat percentage first.A 12-week cutting-diet ..followed by a 12-week bulking diet... and repeat.

How old are you by the way

[tbody66]

I am 38 years old

[SwoleCat]

Wow, u and this guy have the same jeans, doorknob, and car pictures.

http://67.18.108.244//showthread.php?t=136146

~SC~

[SwoleCat]

Looks like you photoshopped the haircut, the tats, but left out the obvious stuff.

Shame shame.

~SC~

[big swoll]

good call SC

[SwoleCat]

I can't believe someone can be so dumb to post the same types of pics.

It's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO obvious. Same poses, jeans, situational scene, post count 1 vs. 3........

Wow.........!!!!!!!!!

Thanks BigSwoll.......

~SC~

[tbody66]

If you read his post it would explain alot. We work together and just joined the Gym together. We both joined the sight today and posted our pictures. Definately not the same person. Nice to see you are perceptive though. We are tracking our progress together by taking the same poses and photographing each other.

[SwoleCat]

Oh...

U wear the same jeans and belts too?

Cool!!!!!

~SC~

[Carlos_E]

I can't believe someone can be so dumb to post the same types of pics.

It's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO obvious. Same poses, jeans, situational scene, post count 1 vs. 3........

Wow.........!!!!!!!!!

Thanks BigSwoll.......

~SC~

I'm confused. Does he weigh 208 or 170 pounds? And has he been lifting for 1 month or 11 years?

[AandF6969]

I'm confused. Does he weigh 208 or 170 pounds? And has he been lifting for 1 month or 11 years?

I think he did lift for years, got "laid out" for a certain amount of time and has been back in the gym for a month. The difference in weight is the two sets of pictures. I wonder if this dude is taking steroids like his buddy...

[tbody66]

Blue jeans apparantly come in very similar shades as well as black belts. Did not edit. We are just friends and training partners. We really like the sight. I'm not understanding what the point would be in taking the time to do the things you are suggesting. I most certainly respect your advice in all of the threads I have read. A positive part of my decision to join. Britishdragons and I agreed that we would both post pictures, because we respected those on the sight that did so. I don't agree with those giving advice and slamming someone else's photos when they aren't man enough to post theirs.

[tbody66]

I wasn't suggesting that those of you responding hadn't posted your pics. I was explaining that I would not feel right responding to someone else's request for input on their pictures without having posted my own.

[slizzut]

lol is this a joke

[tbody66]

I don't understand. We started working out at the same time. I often motivate myself by keeping progress. We have a digital camera at work and alot of free time. We took pictures of each other the same day, at the same location at the same time. Just throwing it out there to the world.

I really felt that I had made some substantial improvements in the four and a half weeks between pictures and wanted some encouragement and some sincere criticizm. I'm a lifter, not a photoshop editor. All of the things we are doing seem to me to be some solid, simple ways to motivate ourselves and, by telling and showing the board, where we are now should hold us accountable.

Looking to continue improving forever. Respectfully.

[Sage]

another great thread..

"no juice for U !!!" said the juice Nazi

[CarvedFromStone]

they have different haircuts....but they sure do look allot alike..

[workdude]

I don't know...They could be the same person...LOL

[anaBROLIC]

ip check? lol

[snowman]

I don't think they are the same person.. 1 of them has tattoos... 1 on each arm/sholder, and the other has no tatoos... but again i could be wrong, since you can do anything on computers now a days....

[*Narkissos*]

Refer to post #2

[britishdragons]

You are not accurate. just 2 guys Posing in before and after pics... Ha Ha...what a funny one. I wish I looked like Him. I am the fat one with tattoos....

[tbody66]

Had a tough time sleeping last night, letting this whole thing bother me. My training partner and I took before and after pictures on the same day at the same location with the same camera and challenged each other to post them on this site for some accountability and critiquing.

I was immediately called a liar and my partner is told he needs to post face shots to not get labeled as a fake on this site immediately. On every thread we read before joining this site we would see people ask for stats, so we both included our stats in our opening threads. We felt that these poses showed the progress we had made so far and were sincerely seeking advice.

I am then told that I have the exact same body as someone who has only lifted for one month of his life and has over 25% bf, little muscle definition and seperation, not to mention tattoos, jewelery and body hair (of which I have none). This seems to me to be flaming, which I was under the impresssion is not looked favorably upon on this site.

If another person began lifting with us we would also help them chart their progress by photographing them in the same location with the same poses as reference points. I would sincerely like some input on my before and after pictures, taken 25 days apart with nineteen pounds of weight gained.

P. S. : tell me who to send the pictures with the face shots so we can get this cleared up, please.

[SwoleCat]

If you are your partner are two different people, that is fine. You don't have to "send" face shots to anyone, you post pics here as you have done, that is what this forum is for.

We can easily understand you are two diff. people, but you have to understand that we see "fakes" everyday here. Then when you take into account that neither you nor your buddy even mentioned your plans together to join this site, the fact you train together, have taken pics of each other, etc., and threads are posted a few hours apart, it appears as if you are one in the same. No one flamed anyone, but it did appear as if this was another fake of sorts, especially considering the way in which the first poster was instructed to train natural, avoid gear, etc., and hadn't responded until AFTER the other buddy has posted a thread that mentioned NO gear.

So, you have to see it from the old-school peoples' points-of-view here. When you come w/pics and such, you want to come w/thorough information, that is how message boards operate.

~SC~

[tbody66]

We were not trying to pull anything over on anyone. We have one computer at work and took turns posting our threads. I'm just saying it is somewhat insulting to say that we are that close to being the same. Other than we are both old, fat and pale. I have always trained hard when lifting and have been blessed by being able to bounce back quickly after layoffs of any length.

I am definitely new to the whole thread and posting thing, so I appreciate the advice. Now please some comments on my before and afters. I was selfish in beginning with a bulk cycle because of the holidays coming up and as a general rule I have a difficult time with diet and cardio.

[SwoleCat]

For diet/cardio advice, check out the sticky posts atop the page in the diet forum, that would get you started in the right direction!

Thanks for understanding how we saw it. One lady whom we had "known" for YEARS ended up being a TOTAL FAKE!! She was using pics of another member's girlfriend, claiming it was her. That was a biggie! She claimed to be all in shape, very attractive, etc., and in reality she was a poster girl for Jenny Craig.

Good luck!
~SC~

[thickmass]

We were not trying to pull anything over on anyone. We have one computer at work and took turns posting our threads. I'm just saying it is somewhat insulting to say that we are that close to being the same. Other than we are both old, fat and pale. I have always trained hard when lifting and have been blessed by being able to bounce back quickly after layoffs of any length.

I am definitely new to the whole thread and posting thing, so I appreciate the advice. Now please some comments on my before and afters. I was selfish in beginning with a bulk cycle because of the holidays coming up and as a general rule I have a difficult time with diet and cardio.

listen mate you two are SO close in appearance (with heads blacked out) it's spooky.

Easy to look at your pics and think one "guy" is actually "before" and the other "after"

Why you don't see this is really really irritating, ya know?

If you have been training 11 yeras then thats a lotta fat you accumulated in 18 months. Diet must be something else...

[Natural1]

I think this is the funniest thread i have ever read

[Ntpadude]

Okay, I had been lifting for eleven years, laid out for 18 mos. and got back in six weeks ago. Winter time so I started with a bulking cycle, even though I'm already higher bf% then I want to be. I had been checking out several sights on supplementation/training/steroids and really found this one by far more informative than all others. I mostly admired the people who posted pictures since that takes some guts.

I want some honest critique and some helpful pointers. Early pictures are from november 2nd, I'm 5' 6" tall, 38 years old. I weigh 170# with 17.7% bf in early shots. The second pics were taken on November 27th,(that's right, only 25 days later). I weigh 189# with 19.2% bf. Starting measurements were 14.25" upper arm, 42" chest, 16" neck and a max bench of 225#. Second pics show 15.75" upper arm, 46" chest and 17" neck with a max bench of 300#.

I have no leg shots, but I do train them. They are still very far behind my upper body, I think, and I can not get my hams to respond at all. Well, some pics and background as an intro. All comments welcome.

Well you need to get back into it and stop bulking... in upper 30's and after our body's dont respond like they used to. ALso I dont mean this in bad way but who did your body fat measurements or are you using that navy method where you measure you neck, height and waist and run a formula. The navy method typically suggests you are about 7 body fat percentages lower then you really are. For example when I was 20% on the calipers, I didnt have love handles like you are showing.

I think you are in excess, like around 24% BF and you need to stop bulking or obesity will be knocking on your door before too long. Fat gets out of control on us in this upper 30's age range where we probably never had a problem before when younger. Time to make age adjustments to the way we do things.Trim the calaries per day down to 3000 and work on growing muscle with that, let the muscle slowly eat away at the body fat.

To you other guys saying how can 18 months lay off tear you down... well its long enough to undo ALL of the prior lifting time. If you dont believe me, try taking 3 weeks off from the gym and see how much you loose in muscle mass and strength. Its tremendous how fast our body's will loose what we've been working on even in as little as 3 weeks OFF. Even take 10 days off from the gym and I bet you wont be lifting as heavy of weights with as many reps as you are doing now - and you'll leave the gym remarkably sore trying. Even 1 year off will wipe everything out. I know because in my 20's I had a great build, got into auto accident, broke my neck and had to take a couple years off... I lost all my muscle definition and 30 lbs of my muscle just from being sedentary. I've earned most of it back now in the last 3-4 years and then some but reality was, after the broken neck, I really lost most of the gains I had then in just about 4 to 5 months.

[Ntpadude]

Wow, u and this guy have the same jeans, doorknob, and car pictures.

http://67.18.108.244//showthread.php?t=136146

~SC~

They look like two different guys, same camera and house and they share clothes. One said he had 11 years experience lifting the other said he is totally knew and never lifted weights before.

I think I could see distinct differences but obviously they are both eating the same cooking. They may be suprised that its a little bit harder then just lifting weights, shooting roids, and they definately dont want to be bulking. They have enough ready to use body fat to support muscle growth, there is no reason to eat above 3000 calaries. They both need the treadmill for one.

[britishdragons]

I wish I lost the fat first. I feel like a fat lump of dog doo. I am however stronger and look a little better but nothing like Id like to look. Can I continue to grow on a low fat diet or atkins type of diet?

[d.b]

Bro hit up some cardio in the morning before you eat...I know what fat in your upper 30's can do to you...I turn 40 next year and I maintain about 10% bf with diet and cardio in the morning.

Good luck and at least you are trying...

peace

db

[britishdragons]

Just for the record. I the fat one am going to lay off the juice and alter my workout till the fat is gone. I will wait 2 years before I juice and bulk. If my theory that I developed after the feedback you all gave me is correct I prob wont need any juice because after 2 years in the gym I will look good. thanks guys.

[thickmass]

how about you alter the diet?

Lay off the juice (fruit that is any anything containing sugar), fried foods, fast food etc. and eat something healthy.

[AandF6969]

how about you alter the diet?

Good call bro... fat loss is mostly dependant on diet IMO

[*Narkissos*]

Good to see this thread's turned around

[Ntpadude]

I wish I lost the fat first. I feel like a fat lump of dog doo. I am however stronger and look a little better but nothing like Id like to look. Can I continue to grow on a low fat diet or atkins type of diet?

No just eat like a 3000 calarie diet, weight train, add the treadmil, be patient, the muscle will grow, the fat will reduce, after about a year you will be suprised at how much you improve. There are no quick fixes in this world with your body.

[tbody66]

Just got back from the gym, New Bench Max of 315#, and weighed in at 190.5#. Here are some pictures in shorts, showing the legs as well. I feel as if I haven't gone up in bodyfat since I started the program, but let me know how it looks. I'm really happy with the new max, and my bodyweight. I know I need to lose bodyfat, but I honestly feel better when my strength is up before dieting.

Also took a picture with Britishdragons, let me know if you can tell a difference.

[*Narkissos*]

no i can't see the difference..just kidding bro.

Aite i believe u when you say u've been trainig awhile..BUT i must interject...not properly(don't take offense..hard doesn't mean smart).

Right now.. i think due to the size of your waist in comparison with the rest og your body..you need:

Cardio
and a good lower-body plan of attack.

A routine that focuses around Leg day (assigning rest days and such around leg day) would be of asset to u..BOTH in terms of improving body composition AND upping your metabolic rate

[tbody66]

ALso I dont mean this in bad way but who did your body fat measurements or are you using that navy method where you measure you neck, height and waist and run a formula.

Just using the handheld device that my gym provides, type in the age, weight and height and hold it for a few seconds and it gives a digital read out, I felt it was low also but should be accurate in measuring the differences if always under the same circumstances(before a workout or a meal after fasting overnight).