Sharing Progress (3 months)

[Toccs]

Hi all,

Thanks to a knee injury I did no exercise for two years and started to get a bit fat, I decided enough is a enough time to sort my shit out. I hit the Gym quite hard and these are my results. I am a bit shy so go easy on the comments I know I have crappy boxers!

Goal for now: Get bigger.
Goal for later: Lose weight.

18th Feb (Start Date before training)

Front
Side

18th March

Front
Side

18th April

Front
Side

My schedule that worked for me

Monday & Thursday
Incline Bench, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Flat Bench, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Decline Bench, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Lay down Fly, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Core with weight 6 x 4
Bent over rows, Barbell 6 x 4
Dead-lifts, Barbell 6 x 4
Bent over fly, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Upright Row, Barbell 6 x 4
Pull-ups 6 x 4

Tuesday & Friday
Clean & Press, Barbell 6 x 4
Shoulder Press, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Side lateral raises, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Bicep Curl, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Dips 12 x 4
Alternate Front Dumbbell Press, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Squats, Barbell 6 x 4
Lunges, Dumbbell 6 x 4
Behind Leg Squat, Barbell 6 x 4

I take 30g Whey Protein on the days I exercise.

I thought I would share my progress, I'm quite happy with it and if anyone has any advice on how to improve it I'm all ears.

[Deleted]

Since nobody has responded yet, I'll start off.

First off: Good thing you started exercising again. You don't look fat in your start picture (skinnyfat I'd say), but it's better to start exercising before things get worse

Secondly: To be honest the only differences I can see are slightly broader shoulders and a slightly flatter stomach. How's your diet and rest? An easy rule of thumb is about 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight daily, enough fats, and enough sleep.
It's normal to not see a big difference after such a small time-frame. Keep on taking monthly pictures for comparison though, always good to look back.

Thirdly: Your routine seems too high in volume, especially for a beginner (or someone starting again after a few years). As cheesy as it sounds, I'd recommend doing Starting Strength (or another strength-based routine) for a few months before doing a routine like that. This also brings me to:

Fourthly: Your posture seems a bit off. From the looks of the side pictures it feels like you've got a (minor) case of lordosis: Click to compare for yourself. Improving your posture will definitely improve how you look. Fixing lordosis is a case of:

- Strengthening your core: that's why I'm recommending Starting Strength, since it has a huge focus on the core by doing deadlifts and squats.
Instead of following the regular routine (increase weight every session) I'd like to add this though: Focus on form until your core is strong enough (shouldn't take _that_ long if you keep going to the gym), only then should you focus on doing heavier deadlifts/squats. If possible, try to get someone to monitor your lower back when you're doing these exercises.

- Doing stretches, main focus on your hip flexors.
Here's a little image to help: http://i.imgur.com/FCMrtMD.jpg - As it says, don't do the 3 core exercises (right part) a day before going to the gym, but on the same day (right after your regular sets, or before going to bed) you're going to the gym. The stretches (left part) can/should be done daily for a couple of minutes.

- Actively monitoring your posture (least important part imo, but still)
It's hard to change your posture, since you've gotten used to it over the years. Some people recommend setting an alarm every x minutes, so you're reminded to sit correctly (sit upright, and tighten your butt and abs mainly).

Useful link: http://stronglifts.com/lordosis-why-...how-to-fix-it/
Another core exercise you can consider doing is using the ab wheel. Although an ab wheel seems really simple, and only costs a couple of bucks, it absolutely kills your core (in the good way). There are plentiful videos on Youtube describing it and telling you what to do.

I'm not sure about this one, but it also looks like your shoulders are rolled a tad forward. Scooby has a nice guide on how to work on that (and general posture) here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/2012/04/0...hed-shoulders/

Within several weeks you should see a difference in posture, as long as you keep working on it.

Hope it didn't sound too harsh. Keep on going

[Drsolders]

I can see your chest bulked up some and you definitely cut your stomach down some. Congratulations! Keep it up.

[Toccs]

Thank you Starquake for taking the time to reply.

First off: Good thing you started exercising again. You don't look fat in your start picture (skinnyfat I'd say), but it's better to start exercising before things get worse

Agreed I’m 30 next year so I really need to keep it up.

Secondly: To be honest the only differences I can see are slightly broader shoulders and a slightly flatter stomach. How's your diet and rest? An easy rule of thumb is about 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight daily, enough fats, and enough sleep.
It's normal to not see a big difference after such a small time-frame. Keep on taking monthly pictures for comparison though, always good to look back.

1. Diet: It is OK the only bad thing I really have in it is far too much Sugar about 2tsp each coffee (I have about 3 – 4 coffee’s a day and maybe some simple carbs) I eat around 1500 cal a day.
2. Rest: Around 6 hours sleep a day I have no excuse for it really other then I game until 11:00pm, watch an episode of something then sleep, back up at 6:00am.
3. 1 gram of Protein per Pound? For me that would be 147 grams of Protein a day.

Fourthly: Your posture seems a bit off. From the looks of the side pictures it feels like you've got a (minor) case of lordosis: Click to compare for yourself. Improving your posture will definitely improve how you look. Fixing lordosis is a case of:

- Strengthening your core: that's why I'm recommending Starting Strength, since it has a huge focus on the core by doing deadlifts and squats.
Instead of following the regular routine (increase weight every session) I'd like to add this though: Focus on form until your core is strong enough (shouldn't take _that_ long if you keep going to the gym), only then should you focus on doing heavier deadlifts/squats. If possible, try to get someone to monitor your lower back when you're doing these exercises.

- Doing stretches, main focus on your hip flexors.
Here's a little image to help: http://i.imgur.com/FCMrtMD.jpg - As it says, don't do the 3 core exercises (right part) a day before going to the gym, but on the same day (right after your regular sets, or before going to bed) you're going to the gym. The stretches (left part) can/should be done daily for a couple of minutes.

- Actively monitoring your posture (least important part imo, but still)
It's hard to change your posture, since you've gotten used to it over the years. Some people recommend setting an alarm every x minutes, so you're reminded to sit correctly (sit upright, and tighten your butt and abs mainly).

I never thought to improve my posture (or stretching), I can thank the computer for that. I’ll do that in future and throw more core exercises into the mix, the only ones I have at the moment are Deadlift and squats I think.

Hope it didn't sound too harsh. Keep on going

Not at all, unfortunately as much as I love my family they are never truthful when it comes to these things, which is why I posted here. Thank you so much for all the advice and guides will take another look at what I do and try and improve it based on the feedback you have given me.