[Yous]

Hello fellow HF members,

I have some free time on my hands over the summer and thought why not make a progress thread to help keep myself more accountable and maybe even inspire some people :p

About Me:
I was born with fairly good genetics in terms of fitness and health. I am a Mesomorph (basically it means losing fat and gaining weight/muscle are of equal difficulty to me, and by difficulty I mean fairly easy lol)

I am 19 years old and I have been lifting since 2010 and have learned so much in the past 5 years. Over the past year I've pretty much been around 10%-11% body fat. I consider my approach to health and fitness very unique and it has made maintaining 10% fairly easy.

But now I want to see if I can tweak my methods and enjoyably maintain 7%-8% bodyfat year round. I am very confident in my approach and believe this will be fun to document on HF haha

A bit more about me 🙂:

- Studying for my personal trainer certification currently hoping to take the test the first week of August
- I have a certificate from MIT for social physics and am currently about to complete another certificate for Biochemistry from Harvard
- Played football/soccer in high school. Currently play soccer in college

The Purpose Of This Thread?
- To log my journey

- But more importantly to answer questions from you guys! I love reading your questions and answering them please ask anything, the more detailed the better!

Feel free to PM me your Skype if you want to talk further and ask more questions 👍

Starting Pics:
6/13/15
I'd say I am around 11% bodyfat as of right now

Spoiler (Click to View)

6/17/2015 picture update:
Spoiler (Click to View)




Pictures 6/18/2015:
(I was in a surplus this past 3 days so no fat loss I think haha)
Spoiler (Click to View)

[LeTreehugger]

Looking nice and tight OP.
Post them stats though, weight, height, bench, squat and deads.

[Yous]

Looking nice and tight OP.
Post them stats though, weight, height, bench, squat and deads.

Thanks 🙂

Part of my approach is building the leanest possible physique while still being really strong. Not getting too bulky but more of a hollywood superhero look haha.

Currently:

5'9.5 (I tend to just say 5'10)
Weight: 171-174 range

Lifting Stats:
(I don't often max so i'll make some assumptions here based on my workout's this week)

Bench: I did 225 x 4 in a set this week. I'd say currently my max is around the 245-265 range. My goal is to do 315 for around 2-3 clean easy reps.

Squat: I hardly ever do legs I have naturally big quads and calves and I don't want them to get too bulky. But I did do a squat workout about 10 days ago. My last set was 315 x 5. I'd say my squat is probably 405 or just under 400. My legs are strong as fuck lol. I never even trained squats pretty much since I was 18 I could always do 315 for reps and I am happy staying in this area.

Deads: I don't do traditional deadlifts (will explain if you'd like), I do trapbar deadlifts every so often. Last week I did 4 plates on each side for 3 reps on the trap bar so I have no idea what that translates into as a max.

[funtela]

Posting here to check out your results!

Do you mind sending me your routine? I wanna compare it with mine. I'm currently trying to cut since I've already bulked as much as I wanted to :)

[AbusedTheSysem]

Why bother going to that low BF? You should bulk more man

[ItsATumor]

I'm very jealous of people who are born with the natural ability to be like that. You need some BF if you run or do a bike trip.

OT: I dropped about 20 pounds, and I think I'm at 15% or so BF. I've hit a plateau, any tips?

[AbusedTheSysem]

Just one thing with the picture, do you train chest and shoulders regularly? Because in comparison to everything else they are a lot smaller.

[Yous]

Posting here to check out your results!

Do you mind sending me your routine? I wanna compare it with mine. I'm currently trying to cut since I've already bulked as much as I wanted to :)

I only workout out 3 days per week (that's all you need for a strong and lean contrary to popular belief).

The beauty of my routine is I rotate exercises often. 2 months from now i'd say about 3-5 things you see there will be rotated for something different.

It looks something like this currently:

Everything you see on there utilizes reverse pyramid training. Sometimes for stubborn muscles such as upper chest and delts I will utilize rest pause training (feel free to ask questions about any of these I love answering questions lol)

DAY 1/3:
- Bench Press 2 warm up sets, 3 working sets
- Incline Bench 1 warm up set, 3 working sets
- Incline DB press 3 working sets
- Assisted One arm pull ups (AMAP - As Many As Possible)
- Body weight reverse row on a bar (not 100% sure what this is called will clarify if needed)
- Close vertical grip lat pull downs 3 extremely heavy working sets
- Optional: Wrist curls with 10's (helps forearm development and keeps wrist solid)

DAY 2/3:
- Barbell shoulder press 1 warmup set, 3 working sets
- One arm standing dumbbell press 3 working sets
- Pull ups weighted (warm up 20-30 reps unweighted) 3 working sets weighted
- Bent over row barbell 3 working sets
- Farmer Carries around lap entire gym 3 working sets
- Optional: Wrist curls with 10's (helps forearm development and keeps wrist solid)

DAY 3/3:
- Weighted Pistol squats pause reps 3 working sets
- Trapbar deadlift OR medicine ball one leg squat thingy OR Weighted Sumo squats with DB (can explain later lol)
- Lateral dumbbell raises 3 working sets
- Ab machine heavy super set. 20 reps on 110, 20 reps 100, 20 reps 90lbs no breaks in between the sets
- Ab wheel 3 sets of around 15-20 reps
- Russian twists weighted 20-35lb dumbbell 20-30 reps 2-3 sets

Why bother going to that low BF? You should bulk more man

I don't want to look like a bulky bodybuilder. Trying to look like a model or hollywood actor while still being able to out lift the 'bodybuilders' haha

I'm very jealous of people who are born with the natural ability to be like that. You need some BF if you run or do a bike trip.

OT: I dropped about 20 pounds, and I think I'm at 15% or so BF. I've hit a plateau, any tips?

I'd need to ask you a bunch of questions so feel free to PM me and I can give you my tips/thoughts on Skype

Just one thing with the picture, do you train chest and shoulders regularly? Because in comparison to everything else they are a lot smaller.

I think the shoulders are okay, but I am working on making the deltoids have more of a 'pop' look. But I am working on my upper chest. To be completely honest with you I never took a serious approach in training my upper chest until this year (heck even a few months ago). Stay tuned to the thread i'd say about 4 weeks from now you'll see some differences. As for traps i'm not too big on training them I know they will naturally come from the pull ups and pull downs i'm doing. Like I said earlier stay tuned! 😝

[Ramisme]

Just one thing with the picture, do you train chest and shoulders regularly? Because in comparison to everything else they are a lot smaller.

lol wat? his shoulders are completely proportional to the rest of his arms. chest might look like it's slightly lacking, but that's likely just due to him having a chest gap. his traps really are the only thing that seem to be lacking from this view. lats may be as well, but it's hard to tell.

[funtela]

I don't want to look like a bulky bodybuilder. Trying to look like a model or hollywood actor while still being able to out lift the 'bodybuilders' haha

This is exactly what I want as well lol.

[ItsATumor]

It's 11:30 right now, and I need to sleep badly. I'm having a good ol' fashioned BBQ tomorrow, and need to look presentable. I'll pm you when it' done, thanks for the offer.

[Yous]

This is exactly what I want as well lol.

I'm calling it now. This mindset is going to be the next wave of fitness. Girls don't dig the massive bodybuilder look.

Girls watch movies and see dudes like Zac Efron, Brad Pitt, and Chris Hemsworth. They see abs and just the perfect amount of muscle. Those are the dudes they really are attracted to. And that's just one bonus. You look so much better in clothes with those proportions and feel so much better.

The greatest feeling though has having that physique yet still being able to out lift bodybuilders and do badass things like 50" vertical jumps and one arm pull ups.

If this thread sticks and enough people ask me questions i'll consider filming some one arm pull ups haha

[Ramisme]

This is exactly what I want as well lol.

I don't want to look like a bulky bodybuilder. Trying to look like a model or hollywood actor while still being able to out lift the 'bodybuilders' haha

protip: you'll never get anywhere near as big or "bulky" as a bodybuilder without supplements. That should be the least of your worries. Lift heavy, stay lean, and stop eating in a surplus if you ever feel like you're bigger than you want to be.

[Farquaad]

Now when you squat how low do you go?

[Yous]

protip: you'll never get anywhere near as big or "bulky" as a bodybuilder without supplements. That should be the least of your worries. Lift heavy, stay lean, and stop eating in a surplus if you ever feel like you're bigger than you want to be.

I completely agree with this logic. It's sort of like when women fear become bulky from lifting. It does not happen over night, you simply stop when you get where you need to be.

I am saying though that the way I train is designed to give me strength gains. In return the muscles will grow the 'perfect' size (in my opinion) and they will be hard and dense. As opposed to bodybuilders who hypertrophy train doing sets of 8-12 reps with isolated movements for the sole purpose of building muscle size.

The size will come with the strength is what I am trying to say. Combining this with my approach to nutrition and dieting and the result is low body fat, abs, just the perfect amount of muscle, and strong ass lifts 😝

Now when you squat how low do you go?

I naturally have very strong legs so I don't squat too often. But I recently spent some time working on my form and I feel so much better squatting now. I don't go ass to grass but I do go well below parallel.

But because I tend to go heavier and lower volume I don't go ass to grass. Ass to grass is good if your a 8-12 rep range kind of guy. On the occasions when I do squat i'm doing 315x5.