OcUK Health Seekers: Post your progress pics

toxic · 2 Feb 2011 at 11:35

cool, will keep checks to see how you goes...quite fancy doing one of these myself someday (before im too old)...and am getting back in decent shape again last few months after not training for about 8 months due to injuries etc.
Dont know if Ive got the guts though...lol

MoNkeE · 3 Feb 2011 at 21:01

Okay, so I've been on quite a bulk. First things first, here's my original offering to this thread back in October:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=17556085&postcount=3637

Back pictures:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=17673386&postcount=3774

Here's me now. Been eating lots and I'm a tad over 12 and a half stone. It's difficult for me to eat more caleries than I burn, so admittedly I have been fattening up with cookies from time to time. But I do purposely eat a lot of healthy food whenever I can. I snack on lots of nuts, always start the day with plenty of eggs and always have a decent amount of protein for lunch and tea:

I've lost any signs of the abs I used to have, but hopefully a cut in March or April will really strip away the excess fat and make me look lean. Quite excited about the prospect!

icecold · 4 Feb 2011 at 00:49

Can definitely see a difference mate, especially in the shoulders. Can't really tell about back width, but I'm guessing it's improved. Bodyfat has probably only increased slightly so at worst you're probably looking at a gain of 5lbs of muscle, so pretty good.

Predictable advice, stop eating the cookies/etc. and replace with protein and fat sources. Fast release carbs so horrible things to your body composition over time, and you're actually limiting your lean growth because your body's insulin response is so messed up.

Keep it up

MoNkeE · 4 Feb 2011 at 08:34

Whoops sorry, forgot about back pictures. Updated the original post with a link, which is this one:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=17673386&postcount=3774

Different poses tho, so isn't really that comparable. Didn't know originally how to flex certain muscles such as lats xD

Yeah I know about the cookies, unfortunately they're a major weakpoint of mine. On the plus side, I'm actually cutting out cookies, chocolate, sweets and coffee from my diet now. I seem to be getting spots quite badly over the last year, and I'm convinced it's one of these things causing it. So now eating nuts and fruit and drinking tea xD

Holliday · 5 Feb 2011 at 19:19

I may as well contribute to this thread now I feel i'm getting somewhere.

Always been a small lad with quite a low body fat %, tried putting on weight in the past, but recently done it more seriously. The first two pics are me at just below 10stone, and the other two are more recent getting closer to 10 and a half.

I realize this pose was awfully bad and not a great way to compare to the new picture, but it's the only pic I have of my back a while ago.

My arms are my main focus at the moment, as are my abs. All good stuff now i'm actually putting on weight!

Djdom56 · 5 Feb 2011 at 19:46

Looks like some good gains there Holliday, what kind of time frame are we talking?

If you don't mind my input I would say you might want to target your chest and upper back a bit more, get those traps showing

Keep it up

Holliday · 5 Feb 2011 at 22:07

Djdom56 said:
Looks like some good gains there Holliday, what kind of time frame are we talking?

If you don't mind my input I would say you might want to target your chest and upper back a bit more, get those traps showing

Keep it up

The time frame is hard to work out really because I didn't really hit the gym properly until I broke up with my g/f on the 15th of December or so.. But the first photos were taken on the 3rd of December, and the recent ones the 22nd January.

Aye I definitely want to work on my traps to look a little wider. What would you suggest for upper back? I do bent over rows but not sure if that hits the upper back.

[TW]Sponge · 5 Feb 2011 at 23:23

Holliday said:
The time frame is hard to work out really because I didn't really hit the gym properly until I broke up with my g/f on the 15th of December or so.. But the first photos were taken on the 3rd of December, and the recent ones the 22nd January.

Aye I definitely want to work on my traps to look a little wider. What would you suggest for upper back? I do bent over rows but not sure if that hits the upper back.

Bent over rows are good for the upper back as far as I know. I found an awesome site the other day that you can click on different muscles and it shows you with videos different exercises for each muscle, forgot what it is though.

[TW]Sponge · 5 Feb 2011 at 23:25

Holliday said:
The time frame is hard to work out really because I didn't really hit the gym properly until I broke up with my g/f on the 15th of December or so.. But the first photos were taken on the 3rd of December, and the recent ones the 22nd January.

Aye I definitely want to work on my traps to look a little wider. What would you suggest for upper back? I do bent over rows but not sure if that hits the upper back.

Bent over rows are good for the upper back as far as I know. I found an awesome site the other day that you can click on different muscles and it shows you with videos different exercises for each muscle http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/

Sorry for double post, found the site though.

Mansize_tissue · 5 Feb 2011 at 23:26

First of all great progress, especially considering the very short time frame! Your back is already widening up nicely.

Shrugs, dumbbell or barbell, will work your upper traps. Try with no weight to begin with so you know what the full range of motion looks/feels like, then add weight. Try not to roll your shoulders back and forwards when doing this, just an up and down motion is all that's needed. A short 1 or 2 second pause at the top of the rep is a nice addition.

That will work your upper traps anyway. If you want to target your lower traps, and please correct me if I'm wrong anyone as I'm not 100% certain, scapular contractions is what you want to be doing. Basically the same movement, but on a different plane of motion. With your back parallel to the floor, shrug your shoulders upwards as if you're trying to pinch your shoulder blades together.

Is this the only lower trap exercise that can be done with free weights out of interest? It seems to be something that a lot of people neglect.

Messiah Khan · 6 Feb 2011 at 08:55

sponge999 said:
Bent over rows are good for the upper back as far as I know. I found an awesome site the other day that you can click on different muscles and it shows you with videos different exercises for each muscle, forgot what it is though.

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

That the one you were thinking of?

[TW]Sponge · 6 Feb 2011 at 09:02

Messiah Khan said:
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

That the one you were thinking of?

No I have found it now. http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/

Feel it is a lot easier to use than exrx.

Messiah Khan · 6 Feb 2011 at 09:54

sponge999 said:
No I have found it now. http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/

Feel it is a lot easier to use than exrx.

Didn't know about that one. Bookmarked, thanks.

Skunkworks · 6 Feb 2011 at 14:41

I'm not sure if the movement has a name, but if you have a cable crossover machine:

- Stand in front of it and cross your arms
- Grab the left handle with right hand, and right handle with left hand
- Take a step back and lean back a bit to take up the slack
- Pull the handles apart uncrossing your arms
- Push your chest forward and pinch your shoulder blades together at the end of the movement
- Adjust the height of the handles to add variation

Pretty damn good movement, and will cover most of the mid/upper back when you vary the height of the handles.

BennyC · 6 Feb 2011 at 15:04

Sounds like rear fly :cool:

Skunkworks · 6 Feb 2011 at 15:09

BennyC said:
Sounds like rear fly

Yes, only with elbows bent to keep the load off the tri's amd allow for a greater range of movement at the shoulders.

Cristian · 6 Feb 2011 at 17:36

MoNkeE, definately packed a bit of extra mass, keep up the good work. You do however need to learn basic poses for your back.

Holliday, what icecold said. to be fair I'd focus on the big compounds for now to add a bit of extra mass everywhere. For example my traps are decent even though I never train them directly, as the heavy deadlifting takes care of that.

nitram100 · 6 Feb 2011 at 17:38

Cristian said:
MoNkeE, definately packed a bit of extra mass, keep up the good work. You do however need to learn basic poses for your back.

Holliday, what icecold said. to be fair I'd focus on the big compounds for now to add a bit of extra mass everywhere. For example my traps are decent even though I never train them directly, as the heavy deadlifting takes care of that.

Listen to this man. I've Deadlifted for 5 years now and my traps pop the back of my shirt, never had to train them directly.

[TW]Sponge · 6 Feb 2011 at 18:00

Messiah Khan said:
Didn't know about that one. Bookmarked, thanks.

More than welcome

LeoN88 · 6 Feb 2011 at 21:27

I dont know if anyone would be able to help me out here i weigh 70kg at current and was able to put on 6kg in 8 weeks with a lot of eating and training and i'm getting fairly happy now with the results. I don't have a pic to hand as my phone wont sync to pc.. (desire hd) anyways i took some measurements instead:

Chest Size - 37.5"
Forearm size - 11.5"
Waist size - 30.5"
Thigh size - 21.5"
Hip Size - 34.5"
Calve Size - 13.5"
Bicep Size - 14"
Neck Size - 14.5"

So from this where do i need to focus more attention?