Hey guys,
I wanted to share a recent experience I’ve had. Starting July 2015, I decided for the first time since high school that I would work out for asthetics.
Over the years through my school and working life I have done lots of strength training programs and did my best to stay athletic for sports and in recent years Brazilian jiujitsu. In recent years I did Eric Cresseys High Performance Handbook (8months), I did variations of 5x5, 12-10-8-6, I even did a bit of crossfit for a while.
I reached a maximum deadlift of 462 pounds, and a benchpress of 285lbs. Not crazy numbers, but for a guy with a job at 5´9” 185 lbs 11-12% bf not terrible either.
However, after 13 years in the gym I never felt like I was REALLY jacked. I had basically maintained to be in “good shape”. One of my friends actually told me “I know you are pure muscle but you look kind of fat.”
So I started.
1) I initially started by adding an arms only day. Which I hadn’t done ever before. Biceps got their work on chins and rows right?
2) After 2 months and increasing my arm size I stumbled across a website talking about a golden ratio for the body that made you look perfectly attractive. I looked at photos of the actors who had this ratio and agreed they looked good. I took my measurements and realized my legs were oversized (deadlifts and front squats for years), my delts were undersized, and waist needed to drop an inch or 2.
3) So I added a shoulder specific day, and cut back on the squat volume. My split at this point was shoulders/legs, chest/back, arms, every 5 days.
4) This was shit and never really gave me any results. So I decided to move to a push/pull and legs split and to more quickly hit the golden ratio from the other side. Rather than bulking up, I decided to cut the fat on my waist, keep my volume low but intensity high and attempt to gain strength while cutting.
5) I focused fully on a push/pull split. And ate 1800-2100 calories a day for 7 weeks. I use microsoft excel to build a diet plan with the calories and macro ratios I want, then I take a photo of it and keep it on my phone as reminder.
6) I cut 12 lbs and got stronger on all of my lifts.
7) At the same time after seeing a specialist about my foreward shoulder posture and doing some more research I got working on a forward head posture fix program and improved my posture dramatically. I did a daily 15 minute routine.
8) My ears now sit over my shoulders over my hips even though I work a primarily desk job, and I believe the tightening of my transverse abdominus and improvement in posture has helped dramatically in my improvements in looks and how my muscle appears. It’s not just about having the muscle and your body fat percentage. It’s about the distribution of muscle and how you carry it.
I now look way better in clothes, I don’t feel like I have a muscle gut in tight t-shirts, and I have been getting a ton of compliments about how I dress, even though I didn’t change my clothes.
As a side note I always feel amazing after doing my posture exercises. Actually I feel better now than I have in a long time in general.
Anyway, here are the results from my experimentation.
Here are the before and after measurements as of 4-April.
Attribute
23/jun
04/abr
Weight
182
170
Arms flexed L
15,375
15,625
R
15,25
15,5
forearm flexed 90deg L
12,25
13,375
R
12,25
13,5
Biggest part upper thigh L
25
23,875
R
25
23,875
Waist - breath out semi-relax
32,875
31
max breath in and push out
34,75
33,5
max suck in
31,75
29,625
normal around handles
33,125
31,75
Ass
40
39
Shoulders - breath out relax
49,5
50
Chest - breath out relaxed
44,5
44
