Beyond Science Squats / Hypertophy + strength bench

ORIGINAL: jheft

LOL, I was looking at those measurements and thinking "hey, why am I so small; other than my arms, I'm the same size as IBB..." But my chest is like 39"... If I'm being generous... With two sweaters on...

@IBB: You're not chickening out on deadlifts still, are you?

 
 
lol that was a cold unflexed measurement on my chest.   I don't know how most people measure it..  As for the arms that was cold flexed ... pretty sad really...   I can add probably 1/2 an inch to those in about 2 weeks.  
 
Yeah I still don't do deadlifts often.  I mean I hit my lower back with push press's standing military press and squats so it should be okay.
 
 
My forearms seem kind of big.. I mean 13 inches.. thats kind of weird..  I think my shoulders give the illusion of looking bigger to be real.   You should seriously get that measuring tool that I got.. it's pretty cool!  especially when your doing your own measurements,  very accurate.

My arms are so skinny - 11" forearms, 13" bicep, and I have a hard time adding to them. The only bright side is that they look pretty good compared to my chest, which is just paper thin.

I'm gonna keep nagging you about deadlifts. I really think - baring an injury that completely prevents them - some sort of deadlift variation should be a regular part of everyone's routine.

I bet if you're really honest with yourself, you just don't like them and try to come up with rationalizations and excuses for not doing them. I know I do that with exercises that I don't like. Like, when it comes time to do squats, I start getting all these aches and pains and say "oh, I'm doing deadlifts, so I can skip squats just this once, I'm not feeling very good anyway..." Or it's time to do work on my abs, I might think to myself "oh, my workout's kinda running long, I'll skip a few sets just this one time". I have to work hard to get past my excuses and do the things I don't want to do.

With something like bench - I don't dislike doing it, but it's frustrating because it's been a weak point for me for so long. But what if I can really go after it - make the changes that I need to make, and do some things I'm uncomfortable with? Wouldn't it be great if I could make a big change; really test myself and see where I can go? Maybe I could turn it around completely and make it a strength. Down the road, maybe make people say "hey, that's a nice bench ya got there, Jheft."

it's true I hate deadlifts... They totally drain me too.. Not to mention the next day my back is so tight it's hard to move.  I pretty much get sore with what ever I work out.  Deadlifts is the only workout that I just can't stand..  I am not alone on that one lol sometimes when I do them guys in the gym are like wow dude... never would I do those I just hate them lol.

Hehe, I don't know why I love them so much. They're just so ****ing primal - it's like they're the only thing in the world that makes me feel like a man. I really want to get my working weight on those up to 405 this year. I'll just walk into the gym, throw on 4 plates on each side and bang out six or eight reps with people staring at me, then I'll just walk out without doing anything else, and never show up again (maybe I'll come back again when I can do 500...). I get hardly any back pain from them either - just sorta run-of-the-mill DOMS, and not very bad (not even all the time). I get three times as much pain in my triceps by comparison and bent over rows wrench my back more than deadlifts. They are draining though, since I moved them to the beginning of my back day my pull-ups and bent over rows have dropped.

Whenever I try to increase my squats my quads hurt so much two days later. That's the part I really dread. I'll grimace getting in and out of chairs and I have to go and hop on my bike... And they kill my shoulders... And they drain all my energy... And they make me nauseated... They're just torture any way you slice it.

So umm the diet... I pretty much just said screw it.. set a timer to go off every 2 1/2 hours and I am just shoveling down the food..  I may gain a little more fat then muscle but I already know how easy it is for me to cut anyways. 
 
 
Going to weigh my self the end of the week and see where I am at.

I have been forcing my self to eat for the past couple days... Now I can't stop though.. I feel hungry like all the time I just can't stop eating.. It's kind of insane I don't know why it's happening but I am sort of worried about getting fat.. I have been sick and out of the gym for 4 days now! ugh! I know 4 days isn't long but damn.. I checked my weight and it was past 210.. not sure if that was right though.. I am going to have to check agian, The moment of truth comes out at the gym on the slide scale.

I was messing with the camera lol..  I liked vaughns poses in one of his pictures tried to black and white and hit a good angle but the angle kind of makes me look smaller..  Although I had some good shots that I wanted to post but my nose is all red from being sick :(  I am feeling better now though!

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well my weight seems to be hovering over 210 which isn't to bad really.  
 
as far as my chest day goes I am still trying to bench 225 for 15 reps.  I can get up to 12 reps so I need another 3 reps.. Doesn't sound like to big of a deal...  Incline press I have to hit 205 for 10 reps and I can only get 7 - 8.   
 
Squats I just stay at 3 plates on the sled.. I keep my motions slow and really long..  My quads are actually looking good.. I noticed the majority of my gains being in the chest and shoulders which is cool...  I need to get these arms up to 17 inches though.. Going to be very careful with how I go about training my arms.

New back picture,  I can't wait to go tanning.. anyways I still got like another 1 1/2 weeks left on cycle.. But hey couldn't resist taking a picture.. I feel like I have a decent amount of mass right now.. Could do with some more I mean 8 lbs isn't much of a difference 10 - 11 will show better so next week a picture will look much better. 
 
 
Anyways this is what I got as of now.


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Your arms are looking bigger to me.

ORIGINAL: jheft

Your arms are looking bigger to me.

I think they actually have grown.  You know it just sucks cause I think my measurements were off before.. It's really hard to take measurements unless you have the right tools ya know?   I think they were more like 15 1/4 before and now they are 16 even.     They actually aren't that big when you put the little tool I got around them and press the button wraping the tape around them evenly.   

My forearms are pretty dope though.. measurements were fairly accurate before with them.. They are 13 inches.    I got much more size on my deltoids  and quads.  


Anyways I swear I will take a whole set of pictures the beginning of january.
 
 
I would have to say this is the first time I actually feel pretty good about where I am at.. I don't feel skinny what so ever anymore..  I use to feel really skinny.. I hate that feeling..

It's weird, cause the measurements don't really say everything. Like, if I just went by measurements, my left arm has very nearly caught up with my right. But it still looks a lot smaller, particularly when flexed, and it's a lot weaker. I also think they look bigger than they did a couple months ago, even though, by measurements, they've shrunk slightly because I've been cutting. But the fact that they're more cut makes them look bigger.

Heh, you hate feeling skinny, I hate feeling flabby... I still feel kinda flabby still, but not like I used to.

ORIGINAL: jheft

It's weird, cause the measurements don't really say everything. Like, if I just went by measurements, my left arm has very nearly caught up with my right. But it still looks a lot smaller, particularly when flexed, and it's a lot weaker. I also think they look bigger than they did a couple months ago, even though, by measurements, they've shrunk slightly because I've been cutting. But the fact that they're more cut makes them look bigger.

Heh, you hate feeling skinny, I hate feeling flabby... I still feel kinda flabby still, but not like I used to.

oh yeah arm shape makes all the difference in the world... I kind of figured my arms would look a tad more beefy if I pumped up the deltoids.. Also my arms are not wide ya know? They are long so from the front they don't look big at all but I flex them and they look the same size as my friend with 17 inch arms. You know what I am saying? From up to down they have alot of length but from side to side they aren't very massy. when I get some 17's they are probably going to look huge lol.

Not sure what I weigh right now but I feel good.


here is my new routine that I started last week:

Day 1 - Back + Triceps
Day 2 - Quads + Shoulders "Only one press, the rest laterals"
Day 3 - Hamstrings + Lower Back + Biceps
Day 4 - Chest

IBendBarbells,

I usually do biceps and triceps on the same day. Is there any advantage to mixing that up and doing like chest with triceps, and back with biceps? It seems to me that doing chest and tri's on the same day would be an overload of sorts.