Post: #1

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Post: #2

(03-31-2015 07:19 PM)Fast Eddie Wrote:  - I have a decent v-taper whereas from the front, it gives an appearance like my torso is a linear cylinder that doesn't get wider up top at all. Obviously, my hips and shoulders have the same widths whether they're being viewed from front or back, so it's a matter of muscle distribution or posture that's creating this unfortunate aesthetic.

- How do I fix this? I'm 5'10 and 150lb, which actually isn't that skinny

- What types of exercises should I be doing?

- No you dont.
- Actually it is that skinny.
- You should eat more, start worrying about "muscle distribution" when you get close to 200 lbs.
Also you dont have narrow hips its just that your back doesnt have nearly enough mass to make it look wider.

Post: #3

What you need to do is slim down your waist and work on your shoulders. Do this by loosing fat and working the rear delts. For rear delts I do one arm side raises, 3 sets of drop sets for each side. for ex, right side 27.5, 15, 12.5 (12 reps at each weight) and then left side, that is 1 set.

when you loose fat you're muscles will pop more and give you a stronger v taper. Not to mention abs appearing.

To be honest, deadlifts actually make your hips wider but for me personally, i like doing DL so I keep it in there. You might want to factor that in though if your focusing completely on aesthetics.

Your lats look good though.

Post: #4

Eddie, all you need to do is eat some food and keep doing your deads, pullups, dips and front squats. You're too skinny and you can't flex bone.

Everything else is overkill for you at your age and body-weight. Don't even bother doing any isolation exercises.

Also, no such thing as big boned or small boned.

Post: #5

Al thes guys that know bodybuilding are probably right about that stuff, but the biggest thing you have that you're not thinking about is YOUTH. You look fine.

Not arguing that muscle will help, probably a lot with the top 5%, and there maybe 0.4 % unicorn-hot chicks you can't get due to your muscle mass, but I bet aggression and improving your value via career, learning and social skills will do at least as much for you. Don't let insecurity stop you.

Post: #6

(03-31-2015 08:05 PM)LINUX Wrote:  Eddie, all you need to do is eat some food and keep doing your deads, pullups, dips and front squats. You're too skinny and you can't flex bone.

Everything else is overkill for you at your age and body-weight. Don't even bother doing any isolation exercises.

Agreed. Just focus on heavy, compound lifts and eating/sleeping enough. Squats, deads, bench, chinups/pullups, dips, shoulder press, and maybe some wind sprints once in a while. No cardio; you can't spare the calories.

Post: #7

Did you play soccer by any chance?

Looks like you have kept low body fat for most of your life but with age you might be softening up a little bit. You now seem to have average bodyfat and average muscle definition.

You need to work on your chest.

Post: #8

Captain, side raises don't target the rear delts.

Post: #9

I'm a big believer in looking at physiques (no homo) and then deciding what is relevant to do. This guy had pretty solid delts, which is no surprise because he hit handstand pushups on the regular.

/thread-27495.html

He got banned but still a decent thread.

Post: #10

Ha, some of you seem to think I'm a lot younger than I really am. I'm in my mid 20's, so if anything I'm approaching the tail end of the “easy gains” life stage.

I agree with the recommendation to eat a lot and lift compound weights. As I mentioned earlier, my staples are deads, bench, pull ups, and presses. I do a lot of lateral raises as well, but that's because I really do have short clavicles. Maybe the photo I posted made it seem otherwise, but if I stood next to an average (western) dude who never lifted, I'd look pretty puny across the chest/shoulder area. I've heard that the only real way to add width (as opposed to thickness) across the shoulders is to work the side delts, hence the lateral raises.

(03-31-2015 07:32 PM)dog24 Wrote:  - Actually it is that skinny.
- You should eat more, start worrying about "muscle distribution" when you get close to 200 lbs.
Also you dont have narrow hips its just that your back doesnt have nearly enough mass to make it look wider.

Getting to 200lb is probably impossible. I hit 135 right around the same time I stopped gaining height, and kept at that weight until 23 or so despite working out fairly regularly. At that point I began to eat voraciously with the intent to bulk, and in the next year added 15lb of muscle and as far as I can tell no fat, since my abs have stayed just about identical to before the bulk. But I've been stuck at 150 for the past few months, and I'm pretty sure if I stopped working out and force feeding myself I'd be right back to 135 in no time. That just seems to be my natural carrying weight, so putting on and maintaining 65lb of muscle over and above that is quite unlikely, especially on my small frame.

(03-31-2015 07:33 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  What you need to do is slim down your waist and work on your shoulders. Do this by loosing fat and working the rear delts. For rear delts I do one arm side raises, 3 sets of drop sets for each side. for ex, right side 27.5, 15, 12.5 (12 reps at each weight) and then left side, that is 1 set.

when you loose fat you're muscles will pop more and give you a stronger v taper. Not to mention abs appearing.

To be honest, deadlifts actually make your hips wider but for me personally, i like doing DL so I keep it in there. You might want to factor that in though if your focusing completely on aesthetics.

Your lats look good though.

Yeah, I do a lot of lateral raises to work those side delts (I think you meant side rather than rear delts right?). As for the waist, if anything it's too thin. You can see that right around the belly button, my torso is a bit concave because the waist is thin compared to the pelvic bones and the ribcage. I don't have a lot of fat to lose around the belly area. I'm standing ramrod straight in that picture and if anything leaning back slightly, but if I were to flex there'd be abs visible.

That's actually one of the things I'm most concerned about fixing. Anyone have any suggestions how to thicken up that area of concavity between the belly button and ribcage? It doesn't look terrible shirtless but it makes me look whack when I try to wear fitted shirts.

(03-31-2015 08:50 PM)CodyB Wrote:  Did you play soccer by any chance?

Looks like you have kept low body fat for most of your life but with age you might be softening up a little bit. You now seem to have average bodyfat and average muscle definition.

You need to work on your chest.

I've played a bunch of different sports including soccer but none more than casually, so I wouldn't say I "played" soccer. You're right though, I have always been a skinny mofo and still am. Winter has just ended and I'm pale as fuck right now, and combined with the lighting it may make me look more flabby than is really the case.

Post: #11

You can milk out the last little bits of your natty delt and lat gains, but apart from that, no there is nothing you can do to change your general proportions and you obviously know this. You cannot reshape bone. Learn to live with your shortcomings, accept that nobody's perfect, and take pride in your advantages: you are young, white, in shape, of good stature, etc.

Post: #12

(03-31-2015 07:33 PM)CaptainChardonnay Wrote:  What you need to do is slim down your waist and work on your shoulders. Do this by loosing fat and working the rear delts. For rear delts I do one arm side raises, 3 sets of drop sets for each side. for ex, right side 27.5, 15, 12.5 (12 reps at each weight) and then left side, that is 1 set.

when you loose fat you're muscles will pop more and give you a stronger v taper. Not to mention abs appearing.

What? Slimming and losing fat is the opposite of what he needs to do. He needs to bulk. Dude looks scrawny.

Post: #13

(04-01-2015 01:25 AM)civpro Wrote:  You can milk out the last little bits of your natty delt and lat gains, but apart from that, no there is nothing you can do to change your general proportions and you obviously know this. You cannot reshape bone. Learn to live with your shortcomings, accept that nobody's perfect, and take pride in your advantages: you are young, white, in shape, of good stature, etc.

How can a guy who's 5'10" and 150 be considered close to hitting genetic potential? Even by the paltry metrics espoused by Arthur Jones, he still has at least 20 (if not 30) pounds of rip to go before tapping out.

Must the bar be continuously lowered? Soon enough there won't even be enough specimens to make a convincing argument for sexual dimorphism between men and women because everybody will be weak as fuck.

Post: #14

Why are you worrying? You have gained 15 lbs of muscle in a year and you already have a decent V-taper.
Just keep doing the same stuff, it clearly works for you. There's a very good chance you will add another 10 lbs the next year and 5 lbs the year after that.
Do not believe the "gain 30 lbs of muscle in 6 months". That kind of stuff only works on the internet.

Also, your exercise selection is on the money. Width comes from building your lats and side delts.

Post: #15

(04-01-2015 02:42 AM)Hades Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 01:25 AM)civpro Wrote:  You can milk out the last little bits of your natty delt and lat gains, but apart from that, no there is nothing you can do to change your general proportions and you obviously know this. You cannot reshape bone. Learn to live with your shortcomings, accept that nobody's perfect, and take pride in your advantages: you are young, white, in shape, of good stature, etc.

How can a guy who's 5'10" and 150 be considered close to hitting genetic potential? Even by the paltry metrics espoused by Arthur Jones, he still has at least 20 (if not 30) pounds of rip to go before tapping out.

Um, I don't see how 20 lbs of muscle spread out through the legs, chest, arms, and the like, is going to significantly help the S to W ratio caused by his clavicles. Just how much more bideltoid width can he add naturally? Maybe 2" max?

Post: #16

(04-01-2015 03:24 AM)civpro Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 02:42 AM)Hades Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 01:25 AM)civpro Wrote:  You can milk out the last little bits of your natty delt and lat gains, but apart from that, no there is nothing you can do to change your general proportions and you obviously know this. You cannot reshape bone. Learn to live with your shortcomings, accept that nobody's perfect, and take pride in your advantages: you are young, white, in shape, of good stature, etc.

How can a guy who's 5'10" and 150 be considered close to hitting genetic potential? Even by the paltry metrics espoused by Arthur Jones, he still has at least 20 (if not 30) pounds of rip to go before tapping out.

Um, I don't see how 20 lbs of muscle spread out through the legs, chest, arms, and the like, is going to significantly help the S to W ratio caused by his clavicles. Just how much more bideltoid width can he add naturally? Maybe 2" max?

Say you're right and it is 2" across. If you combine that with 2-3" of depth -back and upper chest growth, you are looking at a massive transformation. 2" across the shoulders is a substantial gain that is worth pursuing, as it likely represents at the very least 20lbs or so of muscular growth. 2" is a huge difference.

Post: #17

(04-01-2015 03:24 AM)civpro Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 02:42 AM)Hades Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 01:25 AM)civpro Wrote:  You can milk out the last little bits of your natty delt and lat gains, but apart from that, no there is nothing you can do to change your general proportions and you obviously know this. You cannot reshape bone. Learn to live with your shortcomings, accept that nobody's perfect, and take pride in your advantages: you are young, white, in shape, of good stature, etc.

How can a guy who's 5'10" and 150 be considered close to hitting genetic potential? Even by the paltry metrics espoused by Arthur Jones, he still has at least 20 (if not 30) pounds of rip to go before tapping out.

Um, I don't see how 20 lbs of muscle spread out through the legs, chest, arms, and the like, is going to significantly help the S to W ratio caused by his clavicles. Just how much more bideltoid width can he add naturally? Maybe 2" max?

Nobody can be sure how much he can add at maximum, but he's gonna look a lot swoler than he does now. Look at that thread posted up by RussianSoul, for instance. Maybe like that.

Post: #18

(04-01-2015 02:42 AM)Hades Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 01:25 AM)civpro Wrote:  You can milk out the last little bits of your natty delt and lat gains, but apart from that, no there is nothing you can do to change your general proportions and you obviously know this. You cannot reshape bone. Learn to live with your shortcomings, accept that nobody's perfect, and take pride in your advantages: you are young, white, in shape, of good stature, etc.

How can a guy who's 5'10" and 150 be considered close to hitting genetic potential? Even by the paltry metrics espoused by Arthur Jones, he still has at least 20 (if not 30) pounds of rip to go before tapping out.

Must the bar be continuously lowered? Soon enough there won't even be enough specimens to make a convincing argument for sexual dimorphism between men and women because everybody will be weak as fuck.

I wish I could like this post twice. Particularly the last paragraph.

OP, get some heavy rows into your program, stick with the compounds, lift for 5 more years consistently whilst eating, sleeping and training right, and I guarantee that you will look thick as 'fuk' from all angles, and have the strength to go with it. Follow a proven program, I strongly recommend 5/3/1. Pick a template and do it EXACTLY as written. If it gives you the option of doing your own accessory work, pick one or two (MAXIMUM) exercises that compliment the main lift, either by mimicing the movement pattern or by bringing up support musculature (yes, rear delt raises, curls etc are perfectly legitimate for people trying to get strong). Do not deviate from the program. Follow it for one year, and eat everything you can find that isn't junk food.

In the absolute worst case scenario, if you did the simple thing I've outlined in the paragraph above, you would add a significant amount of muscle, a limited amount of fat that would not harm your overall appearance and could easily be dieted off after a year in a couple of months.

If you need motivation, go and look at a 1lb slab of meat. I scratch my head when people say 'oh, you could only add 10lbs of muscle this year if you did x'. Go to a butcher and see what a 10lb side of beef looks like. Tell me you wouldn't transform your entire appearance by slapping that much muscle on your body. 10lbs is huge, and at 150lbs you're skinny as hell from all angles. You've got pictures now. Get to 160lbs and take some more pictures. Do it by eating as much good quality food as you can, and you will not recognise yourself in 1 year. It's that easy to do, it's just you've got to do it.

Post: #19

(04-01-2015 03:53 AM)H1N1 Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 03:24 AM)civpro Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 02:42 AM)Hades Wrote:  

(04-01-2015 01:25 AM)civpro Wrote:  You can milk out the last little bits of your natty delt and lat gains, but apart from that, no there is nothing you can do to change your general proportions and you obviously know this. You cannot reshape bone. Learn to live with your shortcomings, accept that nobody's perfect, and take pride in your advantages: you are young, white, in shape, of good stature, etc.

How can a guy who's 5'10" and 150 be considered close to hitting genetic potential? Even by the paltry metrics espoused by Arthur Jones, he still has at least 20 (if not 30) pounds of rip to go before tapping out.

Um, I don't see how 20 lbs of muscle spread out through the legs, chest, arms, and the like, is going to significantly help the S to W ratio caused by his clavicles. Just how much more bideltoid width can he add naturally? Maybe 2" max?

Say you're right and it is 2" across. If you combine that with 2-3" of depth -back and upper chest growth, you are looking at a massive transformation. 2" across the shoulders is a substantial gain that is worth pursuing, as it likely represents at the very least 20lbs or so of muscular growth. 2" is a huge difference.

I agree. A 2" difference in shoulder width is the difference between narrow and normal or between normal and wide.
And 20 lbs of muscle is a big difference. Look at a 1 lbs steak, do you see how big it is? Imagine 20 of those spread all over your body: you will look a lot bigger.

The total amount of muscle your body can carry is certainly (strongly) influenced by your bone structure. But even with a very small frame a 5'10" guy can hit 170 lbs at 12% bodyfat after a few years of good training, recovering and eating.

The guy has been training for only a year and has made good progress as far as I'm concerned. He should keep on doing the same thing for at least one or two more years, or until it stops working. I think the OP worries too much. Possibly he is influenced by inflated internet claims of gaining 30,40, 50 lbs of muscle in a short period of time. These claims mostly come from people who want to sell you something or from guys who got fat doing GOMAD and suffer from "imaginary muscle syndrome". In the real world 15 lbs of muscle in a year is solid progress.

Post: #20

(03-31-2015 11:05 PM)Hades Wrote:  I'm a big believer in looking at physiques (no homo) and then deciding what is relevant to do. This guy had pretty solid delts, which is no surprise because he hit handstand pushups on the regular.

/thread-27495.html

He got banned but still a decent thread.

That poster looks in great shape. Interesting thread. Have always believed that numbers on the scale don't mean much.

Post: #21

(04-01-2015 04:09 AM)H1N1 Wrote:  If you need motivation, go and look at a 1lb slab of meat. I scratch my head when people say 'oh, you could only add 10lbs of muscle this year if you did x'. Go to a butcher and see what a 10lb side of beef looks like. Tell me you wouldn't transform your entire appearance by slapping that much muscle on your body. 10lbs is huge, and at 150lbs you're skinny as hell from all angles. You've got pictures now. Get to 160lbs and take some more pictures. Do it by eating as much good quality food as you can, and you will not recognise yourself in 1 year. It's that easy to do, it's just you've got to do it.

You beat me to it. Completely agree. People get caught up in inflated internet numbers and forget that adding 10 lbs of muscle to your frame is good progress and definitely changes how you look.

Post: #22

Your physique is fine. Of course you can work to improve upon it and add as much muscle as your body allows.

Any comments suggesting otherwise is just futile noise.

Post: #23

I feel like 50% of threads in this section can be answered with this simple mantra

Eat big, Lift big, Sleep big

Post: #24

(04-01-2015 10:40 AM)Cr33pin Wrote:  I feel like 50% of threads in this section can be answered with this simple mantra

Eat big, Lift big, Sleep big

I think this is especially true for someone who is lean and young like the OP. Lift heavy on a good program, dial in the diet and gain about .75 lb per week. After a year they will be 40lbs heavier. 10-15lbs will be fat which will take a few months to lose.

It only gets complicated / messed up when you are starting out skinny fat or eat way too much.

Post: #25

(03-31-2015 10:06 PM)Rutting Elephant Wrote:  Captain, side raises don't target the rear delts.

Sorry I forgot that when I do side raises I do it with the other hand on the back of a chair slightly leaning over it while standing. This targets the rear delts.

To get big round shoulders you need to target the rear delts specifically as they add mass to the shoulders as opposed to front and side delts. Adding mass to the rear delts will make your shoulders wider and increase the V taper.

Also the OP is asking a question specifically in regards to training aesthetics, not central nervous system. Some of the advice you guys are giving him is not helping him to achieve his own goals.