old program, turning into twisted's program

This is actually kinda ironic, you eat 40% protein, which is said to be "bad for you" and you gain strength, lose fat, gain muscle, and feel healthy as ever.
 
You start eating standard amounts of carbohydrates, your strength stays the same ish or goes down tiny amounts, and you never feel that great.
 
Again, if you feel the weight isnt being put on-up the calories.
 
If you feel youve had enough of the program-just quit, i honestly wont mind, i dont care for my program nearly as much as i care for your gains, put your gains first, not my program.

yeah, its strange...i think part of it might be mental, maybe i was expecting to not have strength gains at first with lower carbs and i did, then i expected more strength increases that i would get with higher carbs. either way, im still gunna be sticking to the program...im gunna keep my carbs up for a bit longer, its been 4 weeks now and ive gone up from 141.5 to 143.5, so thats not that bad actually...about .5 lbs a week. ill ride it out for at least 2, probably 4 more weeks. i think its coming, just slowly...ill be upping calories as i think is needed.

also, i posted some pics in the critique physique setion, ill also post them here

[image]local://18282/C37CAAEE74A745678A95FF0F97AFBCEB.jpg[/image]

Attached Image(s)

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

Hey man like i said, .5lbs is FAST gains, 26lbs a year, hell yeah thatl put you at 170lbs by october 2008 with same fat or heavier, same muscle, but more fat, or less weight, with same muscle and less fat.
 
Continue the high carb cycle until you feel youve gained too much fat-rather than 4 weeks-6 weeks-4 weeks kinda system
 
but its up to you, both will work in the grand scheme of things.

another

[image]local://18282/0A9580C98C6F494D91CB5B20A7557EDB.jpg[/image]

Attached Image(s)

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

hehe, for someone at the start who said they were endo you sure are lean.
 
Its ashame you dont have any before pics, but it seems like you lost a lot of fat, you were a timid 150lbs at the start, now youre a timid 144lbs, 6lbs has been lost, im pretty confident youve lost a lot of fat and gained a nice bit of muscle

yeah, i sorta think of myself as less lean than i am because i used to be overweight when i was younger. i should have taken before pics, but these will serve now as my before pics for my future progress.
 
i have lost fat for sure...i store fat mainly in my lower chest and stomach tho, ill get some more pics up to show that...i dont have a six pack despite the rest of my body being pretty lean, the most i have gotten to is 5, which is odd haha, my lower right ab never comes in.
 
generally tho, my back is my strong point and my chest is my weak point...my shoulders have been coming along, but my chest just doesnt...as my lift would indicate...ill get some leg ones up too
 
 

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

haha look at me, i should have a rippling 6-pack, but i dont, i store pretty much all my fat on abs and legs.
 
Thats why i dont like the whole "10% bodyfat when abs are just about seen" rule.
 
Either way youre looking good, nice to see pics!
 
you might not be huge, but your by no means "little" you have more size and definition than most
 
The biceps are great, but lack of tricep makes them look smaller-this is positive critisism, hammer them tris, i have difficulty building triceps too.
 
One exercise ive found thats good is cable pulldowns
 
get one side of the cable machine, attach the "row bar", set it to around shoulder height, and keeping upper arms to side, move the bar up and down pivoting elbows, should hammer your tris and lats.
 
Also, a GREAT exericse i found is another pully exercise
 
youre aware of the standard stand upright and pull them down to your waist?
 
Yeah, try putting it behind your back and connecting your hands
 
KILLLLLLS the lats!!!!
 
 

based on the pics i have up, what might you guess my body fat to be? ive never had it actually taken...ill also post more pics of chest, abs, and legs soon
 
thanks for the comments..tris are a weak spot, as is chest, especailly the long head of the tris. to be honest, ive never used cables, ive just always done db/bb work, ill give those a try to mix things up for sure. im planning on having my routine off of almost all compounds, but ill throw in some extra tri work.
 
did you work tris more than other muscles then to get them to fill in? i feel like my biceps get hit enough in rows and pullups so i dont do all that much bicep work, but tri definitely lags behind my biceps, even tho i train them equally or even more than biceps. should i train them with isolations then in addition to the compounds that theyll be hit in?
 
 

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

Compounds are good, however triceps ive personally noticed dont build out until mass is gained, to "trick" or "cheat" your way into defined and big triceps with still being lean would be specific workouts.

Notice breakdancers can be lean yet have huge triceps, gymnastics guys too, i like to use bench dips with weights on my lap, and cable work.

triceps are admittedly a very hard muscle group to gain size in, not many lifts make major use of the tricep, as a result tricep work is mostly isolation movements rather than compound-which would explain a lot considering you use a lot of compound

Nothing wrong with that

Inner grip benchpress gets the triceps good too.

Bodyfats hard to determine, even in artificial light beaming right down on you-you see definition, thats a good sign, most itd just blend and look puffy or fatty, id say youre probably 10% at the highest personally

Looking good bro keep on keepin on :)

thanks ibb, i plan to work harder than ever
 
today i started upper/lower split
db bench: 55's X8,7,6 felt stronger here, only 1 rep increase tho
idb bench: 47.5's X6,7,6 slow
db shoulder press: 45's X6,4  dead by the second set
db rows: 55's 3X8 very easy, will up thursday to 60s
pullups: 8,5,4 all the way down to feet just about at ground with slow negatives killed my lats
dips: 12,11,6 finished off my tris and chest
 
felt very good today, everything was controlled, shoulders were shot tho by should press so i stopped at 4 reps and skipped a set, i think ill have to watch shoulders being hit too hard, i dunno...whatever that achy thing in my arm was is gone, so thats good.
 
tomorrow il be doing lower body, which is basically the same as my leg/abs day before

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

today was lower body
squats: 135 X10. 175X10, 185X8, 135X10  most certainly lower than parallel, close to full, felt great since going lower weight and nailing form, think i was cheating myself at first with heavier weights
 
sldl: 135X10, 1852X8  new, in place of leg curls...felt in hams, before when id done it i never really did feel it that much
 
calf raises: 285 X10, 295X10, 305 X8 suprised i could hit that after squats and sldl thought my back would be dead
 
leg press: 350 2X8
 
abs: 125 3X8
 
one of the better workouts ive had yet, finally felt good doing squats with form and balance-had been kinda feeling uneasy with balancegoing down but felt great today...should see good increases here now that im dong them with proper form
 
tomorrows off then back to upper body thursday and lower on friday

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

today worked upper body again
db press: 55's X8,8,6
idb press: 47.5's 3X8
db shoulder press = rolled and cracked my left shoulder and it kills with that pressing up motion and rotating the shoulder around...
db rows: 55's 3X8
pullups: 8,5,4

im not sure what to do with this shoulder...its pretty painful...its not the muscle tho, its like it popped a little but not totally, since i was able to do rows and pullups (tho they hurt once i stopped and released my grip). i dont know how it works with bench and incline. my guess is they would be fine since its a different motion and not a muscle thing. any suggestions with this? i did this like half an hour ago, so its still pretty painful...ive had past issues with my left shoulder, i hurt it swingning in baseball about a year ago, but i thought it had improved until now i guess

either way, tomorrows lower body, so it wont get in the way of that
 
i should add, weight was 144.5 today, so if tahts reliable then im up a pound

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

yesterday i worked lower body
squats: 135 2X10, 175 X10
stiff legged deadlifts: 135X10, 185 X8
deadlifts: 265X!, 275X1 (curious about maxing, but did squats and sldl before, so its probably not accurate)
leg press: 360 3X8
leg curls: 140 2X8
calf raises: 295 3X8
abs: 125 3x8
 
leg were still sore from tuesday, but felt good other than that. leg press especially, seeing good increases in strength there. one thing is tho, just supporting the bar in squats irritates my shoulder a lot when putting it back on the rack, so it started hurting quite a bit by calf raises.

bulking/strength training

soon to begin bill starr's 5X5

current maxes: 
squats: 255
deadlifts: 300
bench: 185
oh press: 125
goals for jan 1:
squats: 300
deadlifts: 350
bench: 210
oh pressL 145 

Quite honestly Edrice the one area i suck at is injury, because i rarely ever get them, my only one was a tiny burst in my bicep quite a while back, and it fixed itself.
 
My suggestion is to just lay off it for a while, or not go as heavy, either way, if it hurts-stop.
 
Also go see a doctor, if its not muscle then its bone placement or possible trapped nerve, they could be able to fix/treat whatever it is.
 
I dont personally do much shoulder work, i just do a lot of incline chest work-builds out front delts real nice like you can see in my avatar, as for rear delts, i do backward dumbell flyes, find a hyperextension equipment, Hyperextensions are these
 
http://www.healthstylesexercise.com/catalog/images/2698_Nautilus_Hyperext_lg.jpg
 
Hold that position(not the arms obviously i mean just the torso lol) (can be tough with weak backs, but by the looks of your weight/deadlift ratio-youll have NO trouble, and basically hold the dumbells with straight arms right below you, then very slightly bend the arms while raising the dumbells up kinda like a lateral raise-but obviously not the same motion, and get the dumbells as far behind you as you can, and bend your arms the same as a usual incline fly for chest-but doing it backwards obviously.
 
 
This gives MAJOR core and back strength to hold that position.
 
Use these 2 ways to get delts big-it should stop the pain but allow progress in strength/size in shoulders, i assume you can train traps with shrugs fine still?
 
Oh also-dont make a habit of maxxing deadlifts, its okay once every now and then to see where you are, but always try to stay above the 6 rep region, because it will stop possible injury.
 
The backs a temperamental thing, even with brilliant form-your back could just randomly ping and its gone, never happened to me, but ive heard it happen to people who usually do have very good form, and heavier weights can do that, so just always stay in the 6 rep limit for most workouts, or more than 6 reps you get what i mean lol.
 
1lbs up is great! Looks like the calorie increases are working!, hopefully this new weight will get you even more strength too!