Took my first measurements today

[PipBoy]

I don't have anything to hide

 

[PipBoy]

If I do decide to cycle, its not going to be for at least a year, and I'm more than likely not going to be telling anyone about it

 

[Do3Gs]

So today I measured my biceps, waist, chest, and quads for the first time EVER. I have never done a cycle and I have only been lifting super seriously for about 5 weeks.

Biceps - 13.75 inches
Waist - 30.5 inches
Chest - 42 inches
Quads - 23 inches.

Height - 6ft, weight - 165lbs.

My goal is 15.5 inch biceps, 46 inch chest, and 26 inch quads at roughly 175-180lbs by the end of the year.

Will probably do my first cycle some time early next year.

I can post pics if you guys want. My body type is in between a meso and ecto.

Yeah I understand where you guys are coming from, and I definitely don't plan on doing more than 1-2 cycles a year IF I do even decide to do it. My main concern is that I plateau very quickly on my lifts and at a low weight (150lb bench for 5 reps, 165lb squat, 245 dead). I honestly have a great desire to become a physique model, and I know that it is extremely difficult without PEDs. I will post a couple pics of my current physique in a bit.

As most stated; EAT MORE. Keep protein high and just eat and eat when you're stuffed, drink some water and then eat some more.

Other than that are you actually following a well designed lifting program in the gym or just walking in and winging it? Find a good strength program, can get lots of good recommendations here also. I know you want physique but lots of food and a good strength program and you will pack on some muscle. Maybe even a combo hypertrophy & strength program.

 

[PipBoy]

I am doing a powerbuilding-esque split that I made myself. I have an at-home adjustable bench&rack with a barbell, a straight curling bar, and dumbbells with interchangeable weights. My split is 3on-1off.

Workout 1 - Chest&Tris
Workout 2 - Back&bis + legs
Workout 3 - Shoulders
Rest

I keep chest and shoulders a day apart to put less stress on my rotator cuffs. Here some sample workouts, I always do the same compound lifts first, with varying isolations based on my mood thereafter.

Chest
Flat close grip bench press 5x5(main lift)
Incline dbell press 3-4x8-12
Skullcrushers 3-4x8-12
Decline flyes 3-4x8-12

Back,bi,legs
Deadlift 4x5
Ass2grass squats 5x5 or 5x10
Bent over row 10,10,8,6
Overhand bar curl 10,8,8
Dbel row with knee on bench 10,8,8
One handed preacher curl - 12,10,8,10,12 with lighter weights of 20,25,30,25,20

Shoulders
Explosive overhead press 5x5
Posterior delt pull 3x10
Upright row 10,10,8
Seated anterior delt raise 10,8,8

All workouts start with the same low-rep compound lift, but I sometimes do different isolations such as incline bench press instead of incline dbel press. The only isolation I keep consistent is the finishing one hand preacher curls, where I set the bench at a 100orso degree angle, almost completely upright. On the initial compounds I focus more on the concentric portion(explosive movement). On the following isolations I do 1-1.5second concentric and 2.5-3 second eccentric, focusing on keeping the muscle flexed, squeezing at peak, etc.
When I lifted for 13 months I primarily did stronglifts 5x5 and only ate 2500orso cals per day. This is when I had the 5rep maxes that talked about earlier.
I feel a lot of my strength coming back already and I honestly feel like I'm going to blast past my previous records, although I am still worried about plateauing.

 

[PipBoy]

I also keep my potassium at 3g a day bare minimum. I feel like special K doesn't get enough recognition, even though its the most prevalent mineral in the sarcoplasm...

By the way, I'm very new to forum posting. Until just recently, I have never been involved with it at all. So my apologies if my formatting is weird or anything.

 

[D-max]

You definitely need to work on your forum skills. You have things spaced out, punctuated, spelled correctly and even use complete sentences.

Work on it.

 

[grey]

Explosive overhead press 5x5

Idly curious what the difference between an explosive OHP and a normal OHP is... Most of the quick presses I see tend to be push presses or bizarre mutant narrow grip snatch things.

 

[PipBoy]

Idly curious what the difference between an explosive OHP and a normal OHP is... Most of the quick presses I see tend to be push presses or bizarre mutant narrow grip snatch things.

I try to do as quick of a positive(with good form) as I can. I also squat down very slightly(3-4 inches) before the positive, so I can kind of throw my body into the lift

 

[grey]

I also squat down very slightly(3-4 inches) before the positive, so I can kind of throw my body into a lift

Ok, that is generally just a push press. Makes sense now to me.

 

[PipBoy]

How does my split look, though? Does it seem like enough rest for each muscle group? Should I do squats on a different day? Should I add/subtract volume?

 

[mudbutt22]

Honestly dude with your current build, you should just do starting strength and drink tons of whole milk. Shoot for 5k calories not 4. You have naturally low body fat so if you start to put some on, you'll notice right away and you can back off. You can add a few accessory lifts if you wanted.

I wish I had started that program when I was a kid and first started lifting. I did the standard bodybuilding split (no legs though, chest and arms warrior) I know now I could have made progress much more quickly had I just done that program.

 

[grey]

Honestly dude with your current build, you should just do starting strength and drink tons of whole milk.

I concur with @mudbutt22 but also know that given what you have already stated that compliance with that type of a power bulk cycle would be pretty difficult for you to swallow.


Losing your abs for say 4 months while on a GOMAD style diet and low-rep PL programming is about 180 degrees from your existing training paradigm and experience. Compliance would be... unlikely.

@Docd187123 has a far more extensive knowledge of both diet and programming than I do. Might know one that would be a bit more aligned with your expectations than SS would be.

 

[DonQKong]

Shitty quality, I know. I seem to gain muscle a bit easier than strength.

Like really?

 

[Docd187123]

You've hit a plateau bc your training and/or diet needs work. Once you tweak this two things you'll see your lift numbers shoot up pretty quickly. Not hating on your numbers but you can do much better than that with the right training and diet.

 

[Docd187123]

I concur with @mudbutt22 but also know that given what you have already stated that compliance with that type of a power bulk cycle would be pretty difficult for you to swallow.


Losing your abs for say 4 months while on a GOMAD style diet and low-rep PL programming is about 180 degrees from your existing training paradigm and experience. Compliance would be... unlikely.

@Docd187123 has a far more extensive knowledge of both diet and programming than I do. Might know one that would be a bit more aligned with your expectations than SS would be.

Starting strength would be a pretty good program for him. It'll def add strength and some size although it's not focused mainly on size. There are of course other options as you said.

 

[Jlnz]

bruh 5 weeks it took me like 2 years before I even searched up Steroids Fam