Width vs. Thickness

[BigGreen]

Hey all....quick question regarding a bit of an issue i have regarding my overall body and "presentation". Looking at a straight on from the front or rear photo, people will generally estimate that I weigh about 250-60 (i am actually 240). While any angled views, particularly from the side, lead people to guesstimate about 210 pounds! I think this is a result of my having a wide frame vs. a thick frame....hopefully you can follow my sloppy, unorganized logic here: my bis, for example, are very "high" and my tris literally hang down in a nice sweep, but they lack thickness....so what looks like a 19" arm is, in reality, only 17". Same with shoulder and chest complex. From the front, I have that cannonball portrusion on the delt and the chest is certainly wide...but from any side view the chest reveals itself as comparitively weak (48" in actuality) same goes for back (lat spread nice, but no overall thickness evident from any angle other than straight on).

Assuming you can make sense of my rambling, is this a matter of muscle maturity (i'm 24 with four good years experience, and have largely avoided squats and deads until relatively recently)? Or have i perhaps been lacking certain exercises conducive to overall thickness? I'm a free-weight advocate and imagine all i'm missing out on is the classic power movements. Any help, as always, greatly appreciated.

[babi]

bro thios is a very intresting thread i hope somebody here has answers for this i cant help you but i am very curiuos to find out myself
if you dont get any answers here about this try anabolex board some good bros there too

[palme]

Well, some mass builders for chest and back are Bench press and barbell/dumbell rows and t-bar rows About 6-7 reps HEAVY! Also to help looking thick from the side make sure you have big rear delts.

The more knowledgeball(?) people can fill in what i missed.

[xxxl83]

BigGreen,

I think between what Palme advised and what you already came up with about the classic lifts you've hit the nail on the head. usually most people with your problem use machines for most of their workouts and don't utilize heavy compound movements.
xxxl83

[BigGreen]

I'd like to think that I am a total free weight guy, but i've spent the last hour or two going over my workout journal from the last year, and the breakdown is actually barely over 50-50 in favor of free weights. I'm actually shocked by that fact and I suppose it's one of many reasons why a workout journal is an absolute NECESSITY...earlier this afternoon, I would have guessed it was about 80-20 in favor of free weights. Well, hope to remedy this soon as I just began a classic powerlifting type split (M-W-F...deads one day, squats another, bench the last, with supporting movements for the ancillaries thrown in at low reps 5-7).

If there's a silver lining here, my training partner told me i have "peek-a-boo muscles", meaning they don't really stand out prominently till flexed (lack of thickness the culprit there too), and if i recall that was a critique of ronnie coleman earlier in his career....not that i have such aspirations...just good to know.

[xxxl83]

BigGreen,

I'm glad to see your going to be using a powerlifting type program. However I would sugest going the "westside" route. You can read up on Westside Methods at www.elitefts.com

IMO to train the DL and Squat in seperate workouts is too much on your body. You use the same primary muscles in both movements and this can lead to injury. Read the articles about the conjugate method at elitefts they'll cover the subject in detail.

xxxl83