The Bodybuilders Thread!

[Necropolis]

Stuffed my back up horse riding - no gym for me for a while :/

 

[thestaggy]

I think this would depend on what your goals are and what the rest of your day's macros look like.

Pure weight gain. I'm naturally slim, so a prototypical hardgainer.

 

[Tinuva]

Pure weight gain. I'm naturally slim, so a prototypical hardgainer.

That is easy. Eat A LOT more

If you think you already eat a lot. I promise you, you are lying to yourself. I am a hardgainer too, and I thought I ate a lot, until I looked at how much someone 1.5 times my weight eat. My eyes opened up.

 

[StrontiumDog]

Regarding hardgainers, are you only allowed to eat a lot if you are working out hard? I ask this because I have a tendency towards being skinny fat, and from hardly going to gym and eating badly the past few months I gained about 4kg fat only. I haven't been eating a lot, but just indulging on too much desserts and chocolate etc...

So now that I am getting back into gym I have 4kg fat to lose.

@Orihalcon, that reminds me, don't you owe us an update on your progress on your cut? IIRC you were making really good progress.

 

[Orihalcon]

Regarding hardgainers, are you only allowed to eat a lot if you are working out hard? I ask this because I have a tendency towards being skinny fat, and from hardly going to gym and eating badly the past few months I gained about 4kg fat only. I haven't been eating a lot, but just indulging on too much desserts and chocolate etc...

So now that I am getting back into gym I have 4kg fat to lose.

@Orihalcon, that reminds me, don't you owe us an update on your progress on your cut? IIRC you were making really good progress.

I'll throw up some pics in an hour. Just need to edit mah mug out of the shots hehe.

 

[Tinuva]

Regarding hardgainers, are you only allowed to eat a lot if you are working out hard? I ask this because I have a tendency towards being skinny fat, and from hardly going to gym and eating badly the past few months I gained about 4kg fat only. I haven't been eating a lot, but just indulging on too much desserts and chocolate etc...

So now that I am getting back into gym I have 4kg fat to lose.

@Orihalcon, that reminds me, don't you owe us an update on your progress on your cut? IIRC you were making really good progress.

Well if your concern is the 4kg, you can aim to first do a recomposition, where you eat for maintenance mode.

That said, eating more isn't just eating more. Even if you eat more to build muscle, you need to eat good food. That is, stay away from sugars, and stay away from the bad carbs.

Get your proteins, veggies, fats and salads in. Tune carb intake based on what you want to do, but stay away from like potatoes. Sweet potatoes are good.

Whichever way you go though, as a skinny guy, you need to eat a lot. Gaining fat in the process is not a bad thing though, you will find it is much easier and faster to gain fat and muscles at the same time, and then shedding the fat after the fact, than it is to only gain clean muscle without fat.

At the end of the day, its your choice how you want to do, we can only point you into the direction for fastest most effective ways in doing it

 

[Orihalcon]

I really have been absent from these parts...

Anyway. Here is where I currently am and from where I started. Just standing relaxed. Wish I knew what to do with my right arm...looks so awkward.


The start. I was at 23% bodyfat here @ 103kg. Not active at all. Pure lazy-ass-ness. Being in the state I was in I decided to cut fat and build muscle at the same time. Not the most effective method - bulk/cut cycle - but I did not want to purely cut and become a damn skeleton either.



After 3 weeks.
Things looking marginally better already. Strength kept climbing. Much happiness.



A further 3 weeks on.
Better chest development. Stomach going down little by little.



And finally here is where I've been for the last 4 weeks.




I've adjusted my diet - loosened it up a lot - to just not regress from where I am now but still enjoy my food hehe. I am currently sitting on 15.6% bodyfat @ 95.4kg. Still cannot break the 200kg squat barrier...stuck at 180kg flat for 3. Bench is stuck at a final set of 8 for 120kg. I've not done 1 rep max on bench in ages.

I know to get leaner and closer to the 10% barrier will require me to tighten my diet up...a LOT. And be more diligent with the cardio. But I'm feeling good about myself and no longer feel like a beached whale at the sea.

I don't have leg pics unfortunately - my legs and calves have always been big luckily (genetics and the bonus of carrying all that fat around for years )

Any comments are welcome, criticism etc.

Also - we need more pics being posted.

 

[Tinuva]

^^ damn that is some nice improvements there !

 

[StrontiumDog]

^^ Agreed, how long has it been since you started?

You say you were inactive at the start. But you were quite clued up and knew what to do to get results, right?

 

[Orihalcon]

^^ Agreed, how long has it been since you started?

You say you were inactive at the start. But you were quite clued up and knew what to do to get results, right?

I reached that final state in 2.5 months and have kept it there till now.

Yes indeed. I've been training on and off since high school and uni days. With me I typically start to train...go to fast...injure myself/get lazy/lose interest etc and relapse to a blob (see pic one). I've always kept up to date with training tips, nutrition and new methods though. This time I HOPE to stick to it and NOT revert to a blob. Keeping myself stable at my current look so far is a good feeling.

 

[Orihalcon]

^^ damn that is some nice improvements there !

Many thanks.

 

[MrBuddha]

Wow, looking good there Orihalcon - and to boot with some impressive weights!

Been out of action this week, had a vasectomy done last Thursday. Will hopefully be able to start again this coming Monday.

Although, promised the missus I wouldn’t start lifting after four weeks…

 

[thestaggy]

That is easy. Eat A LOT more

If you think you already eat a lot. I promise you, you are lying to yourself. I am a hardgainer too, and I thought I ate a lot, until I looked at how much someone 1.5 times my weight eat. My eyes opened up.

Haha, yeah, I suppose it is the only solution.

I done bent over barbell rows yesterday and ended the session with massive forearm and bicep pump. Is that normal? Didn't feel right to me as it tells me my arms were doing more work than my lats and back.

 

[Tinuva]

^^ yes that is normal if your forearms and biceps is weak to the relative weight you pull, and how wide your grip is.

Your hands should be placed on the bar, and should be relatively as far apart from each other as your shoulders is. This will put more of the load on the back muscles. If your hands are wider on the bar than shoulders, your biceps will also get a workout, purely because this is a pull exercise, much like your triceps get a workout with benchpress.

As for forearms, that is because they have to work so that you keep your grip on the bar. This is very good actually, and it will flow over into the deadlift. Once your deadlift goes far heavier than your squat and barbell rows, you will find that your forearms won't work so much on bent over barbell rows anymore. Your next issue will be, the ligaments in your wrists. I snapped the weight up too fast at one point and hurt the ligaments in my one wrist really bad, took 6 weeks to repair with no exercise.

 

[Forza]

^^ yes that is normal if your forearms and biceps is weak to the relative weight you pull, and how wide your grip is.

Would it not be because his back is weak that he feels it more in his biceps and forearms. Remember because your back is weaker your biceps will come more into play to pull the weight therefore not feeling the workout in your back but more on your biceps.

When you doing back always squeeze your shoulder blades together to feel more contraction on your back. This minimizes the chance of your using your biceps more.

You will always feel a burn in your biceps and forearms as Tinuva stated when doing back because it is secondary muscles that are working when doing back and your forearms because of holding the grip.

 

[Raphael123]

I need your thoughts on Nutritech supplements. I see its the number 1 selller at the Chromestore. Can their products be trusted as a local company?

 

[*SynergyX*]

Nutritech was recently outed by USN for false information on their labeling...which they later corrected after releasing a test certificate on their whey. So be careful...all these companies are just screwing the consumer it seems.

 

[StrontiumDog]

Nutritech was recently outed by USN for false information on their labeling...which they later corrected after releasing a test certificate on their whey. So be careful...all these companies are just screwing the consumer it seems.

But you are saying that USN's claims were proven wrong by the test certificate aren't you?

 

[RanzB]

Sounds like he's saying that Nutritech corrected their labelling after being outed.

 

[CodeMaster]

Which might explain their slight formula change recently.