Before and After - Proof my training works

[coolcolj]

I've been pretty upfront about the way I train and the way I eat, right Bfold?

Anyway here is the proof that my way works.

In the last 7 to 8 weeks, my bodyweight jumped from 180-182lbs to 192-194lbs with minimal in any fat gain. My waist may look a tiny bit bigger in the pics, but that's due to my larger abs and lower back, and the shorts pushing up my abdominal fat ( I was wearing briefs in the befores).

I'm also a 100% Lifetime natural. So no drugs used here.

Waist still measures 33 inches. Even though my arms are still small, I've put on almost 1.5 inches on em. And these are functional mass gains too, I'm way stronger across the board, I can jump 3-4 inches higher and jump 7 inches further in the standing long jump despite the weight gain. I avoided getting my legs bigger, but they still went up 1.5 inches, mostly in the hamstrings

Main I thing I noticed was how much bigger my back and traps are, that's all thanks to Yates rows (overhead grip), Shoulder-width chins/pullups and Olympic lifts and hybrids. I rarely do deadlifts and no shrugs here either.

I also rarely did over 6 reps, mostly around 4-6. I lifted explosively, and didn't really emphasis the negative either. I always avoided going to failure where possible. So you can see TUT or training to failure is not a requirement to put on size. Although I'll be slowing the negative in the future to reduce the stretch reflex involvement in certain exercises.
But I kept increasing the poundage and trained frequently - averaged 2 times a week per bodypart, sometimes 3. Was 3 times a week in the first 3 weeks doing HST style training.

I'll post another batch of pics when I crack 200lbs which should be in about another 8 weeks me thinks.
When I start Sprints in the next month or so, I should look a lot leaner in the next batch of pics, and hense more like a proper power Athlete!

Pics now - face blanked to remove goofy face while posing, otherwise I don't mind showing it and I'm a Power Athlete now, but I did the Bodybuilding poses too show you where the muscle went
Oh I'm 5'9" as well.

 

[gmanlax7]

good job bro, keep up the solid progress

 

[Deciever1]

nice work.. stick with your training style , its definately working.

 

[Doktor Bollix]

Great work Cool Col. You can really see the difference in your upper back. 10 pounds of lbm in such a short period naturally is very impressive. You think you can continue at the same rate for a while? I think you might as your strength shows no sign of plateauing on your routine.

 

[Aussie_BB]

Good work there CoolColJ. Any chance of posting up your routine.
I wouldn't mind giving it a go.
Thanks

 

[goldenone]

Very impressive CoolColJ! You can definitely see some good progress. You have put size on everywhere,especially your calves.

 

[Haz]

Excellent photos, they really show a big improvement. If you can see a difference in a photo, then you know you've added some serious mass. Keep up the good work.

By the way, what have you been doing for calves? I can really see a difference, and they are my most stubborn bodypart.

 

[erickthegreat11]

Good job!! Just remember, what works for you doesn't always work for others. The only thing that matters is it works for you.

 

[sorerotators]

Nice job! You can see a big differance.

 

[coolcolj]

Thanks guys

I see no reason why I can't continue to gain, I'm getting stronger every workout - either I slap a 5 lb plate on or I do an extra rep or 2. As soon as I hit failure on an exercise I know I have plateaued in that exercise, so either I use a new exercise or change up the reps and sets scheme, and sometimes I drop the weight 15lbs or so and work back up 5lbs every workout until I reach my old poundage and I generally end up stronger and continue on as before. ie 1 step back and 2 steps forward.

As far as what I do for my calves - well for a while I could not do any sort of calf raises because of an old basketball ankle injury (which has healed now) so I basicly make do with Olympic lifts and clean pulls. I get up on my toes and fully jump up. Then later on I added explosive calf raises on a squat machine - the key here is that this machine goes up at an angle rather up straight up which make it more effective in stretching the calf right out. And lately I have started doing single leg calf raises with a dumbell. The key again is that I do them explosively with no more than 8 reps, generally 6 reps. The extra balancing recruits extra fibres I feel.

Here is my belief, the gastroc is mostly fast twitch! I always hear people go on about needing to do high reps. I disagree here. The soleus maybe slow twitch, but the gastroc is definitely a fast twitch muscle. Go jump or sprint a bit and see how sore your calves get On that note jumping definitely builds the calves up, which is how I do my Olympic lifts, I jump up and thrust off my toes.
So get exploding to make em grow, even to the point of bending your knees and thrusting your whole body up when doing calf raises. I generally explode up, hold the top for 2 secs, then lower slowly and hold the bottom for 2 secs. Also the last few workouts I experimented with doing snatch deadlifts pulls on a podium and exploding onto my toes and holding for a second or two. Man did my calves get mighty sore the next day! Something to try with your pulls/deadlifts.

I also work my shin muscles heavily with toe raises. Hard to tell in the pics, but my shin muscle blew up a bit! They actually protrude way over my shin bone. Instant cure for shin splints

As far as what I did - well the first 3 weeks I did a HST style, 3 times a week full body routine using only 6 reps, and 3 sets per exercise. Heh, my workouts went for 2-3 hours using only 8-10 major compund moves. After 3 weeks I really blew up, but felt a bit strained.

Then I switched to a Poliquin style split

Day 1 - Chest and Back
Day 2- Olympic lifts, Legs and Abs
Day 3- Rest
Day 4- Olympic lifts, Shoudlers and Arms
Day 5 - rest

And then my strength shot up. I don't do any sort of isolation exercises at all, except the curls and tricep extensions. Its all compound moves and whole body lifts like the Power Clean and Power Snatch.

I did mainly around 2-3 main sets, and in some exercises 1-2 speed sets with 50% of my 1RM. Sometimes I changed my reps and sets schemes quite a bit from week to week on some exercises.

There is a thread on the HST board that details in brief what I did most of the time, but I changed things quite a bit from time to time. Do a search for my name.

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/

My strength levels have improved a lot too. For example in the before pics I was barbell rowing with 115 lbs for 3 sets of 6, in the afters I am at 195lbs for 3 sets of 6 not to failure off course.


Main thing is I always avoided overtraining. I also ate well, I eat every 2 hours. I bought one of those huge Whey protein containers and took Whey with vitamin C powder in the morning, before training and after training with fast carbs, and sometimes another serving later on every day. Also I take 12 grams of fish oil a day, thats 2x1gram caps per meal.
My fast carb drink I take after training has 7 grams of glutamine, combined with the 6 grams per serve in the Whey, means I get over 20+ grams of glutamine per day. Makes your lips go a bit dry though taking so much glutamine

Gotta keep the body out of a catabolic state. Keep cortisol low.
With my style of training I want coax the body to get big, not beat it to death, and I also utililise the CNS to my advantage by training explosively. Fast twitch fibres grow the most and the fastest - so target them. And by not going to failure, my CNS can recover much faster, and I avoid overtraining.

Everytime I'm at my gym, nobody looks any different week to week, they are either overtrained or not training properly I guess. But people sure notice I look different everytime I walk in
I see people doing all kinda of force reps and a few times I spotted a few guys where I did all the work!