Most amazing back ever?

[Mr Average]

Mar 29, 2019 11:04:47 GMT mr potatohead said:

Mar 29, 2019 9:16:22 GMT josepz said:

......... Keep in mind that Rollon's pic is in black & white and with higher contrast than yours. Than definitely enhances definition. ......

I would not be surprised if JRG is already as big in the back muscles as Rollon. Like Joseph says, he or his photographer have used an angle of lighting to cast high contrast shadow and light in an otherwise dark room, at an angle that makes any small surface undulation in the skin appear to be a crater or a mountain.
One of the ways I've checked flatwork in total darkness is to lay a flashlight down on it and shine it across the surface. Any minuscule rise in the floor or foundation will show up like a mountain. That's also how I find teeny-tiny objects if I drop them on the floor and can't see them right off.

I agree lighting helps, but when someone is ripped they are ripped

 

and it shows even without posing for the camera or worrying about the lighting.

[mr potatohead]

I'm not going to argue with you, but you're full of shit.

EDIT: When you want to see definition, lighting is everything.

[Michael]

Mar 29, 2019 21:13:28 GMT justregularguy said:

Mar 29, 2019 9:16:22 GMT josepz said:

A little more mass in the lats and arms, and you're almost there. If you're around 5% body fat as you said in another thread, I don't think you should trim down any further. Keep in mind that Rollon's pic is in black & white and with higher contrast than yours. Than definitely enhances definition. Good job, kid. Keep at it.

It's so easy and comfortable to train with the hook expander, it's the single best training tool I know. If I always had to drive to the gym for my workouts, I would never work out as much. With the expander it's very uncomplicated. I just grab the thing and workout wherever I want. It weighs nothing, makes no noise, and within seconds I can increase the resistance. Underrated training tool

To be fair I don't think I'm at 5% bodyfat anymore. I now eat a lot more because I wanna be in a calorie surplus for optimal muscle growth. I have shirts that fit me before christmas and now do not fit me anymore. The chest expander kinda increases the chest circumference, the whole shoulder girdle grows a little. Yes my lats are very underdeveloped compared to the rest. I'm gonna focus much more on overhead downward pulls now. I will also do more overhead presses because I wanna get those round cannonball shoulders haha.

Interesting that you mention arms because I was contemplating to cut out biceps and triceps isolation exercises altogether. I just feel like my arms particular my biceps grow a helluva lot faster than anything else. Wouldn't the time I spend on arms be much better spent on compound exercises like front chest pulls, overhead downwards pulls and overhead presses? I could cut out the arm stuff and increase the volume of those bigger exercises. Or will the bigger muscle groups eventually catch up anyways? What do you think?

Do You do any calisthenics or weighted exercises? Or is everything You do expander exercises? So You don't do any kind of bodybuilding type movements with Bruce's cables like chest press, rows, pulldowns, side laterals, etc...? I think You have done a good job as Josepz and others said. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm assuming that You are looking to improve the way You look via, Aesthetics? Everyone will have different opinions on how to do improve look wise. This is just my opinion nothing else. I believe in trying stuff for myself whether it's popular or not. There are many ways You can go that may work for You but not someone else, You're Young. I know You said You train everyday but sometimes our body needs rest whether we want to believe this or not. When You train the same movements everyday Your body adapts. With weights, Your'e only going to be able to add so much weight.

With cables, it's a little bit harder to add another cable so usually You have to add more reps or sets. So if You do the same thing everyday You're going to get the same results. Maybe it would be better to take some rest days in between Your workouts. Maybe do full body workouts or a upper/lower body split. The reason I say this is because it seems like You want to build aesthetics. You could experiment with low volume/high intensity or higher volume with lower intensity. If You could do calisthenics I would add Dips, Chins/Pull-ups and  some kind of Row. I know most here are against arm work but for me, it's makes my jobs easier. 

[Mr Average]

Mar 29, 2019 22:41:37 GMT mr potatohead said:

I'm not going to argue with you, but you're full of shit.

EDIT: When you want to see definition, lighting is everything.

Really m8 you do not see any muscle definition in any of those pictures? Do you think that those guys where posing for pictures with correct lighting?

Maybe you need this m8?

Or maybe you do not know what muscle definition is m8?

[mr potatohead]

How many abs can be counted in the middle pic?

[Mr Average]

Mar 30, 2019 0:16:33 GMT mr potatohead said:

How many abs can be counted in the middle pic?

Of course I am wrong, I have found a picture of your gr8 m8 TR

and as you can see lighting is everything, when it comes to muscle definition. (rofl)

 

[justregularguy]

Mar 29, 2019 22:52:54 GMT Michael said:

Mar 29, 2019 21:13:28 GMT justregularguy said:

It's so easy and comfortable to train with the hook expander, it's the single best training tool I know. If I always had to drive to the gym for my workouts, I would never work out as much. With the expander it's very uncomplicated. I just grab the thing and workout wherever I want. It weighs nothing, makes no noise, and within seconds I can increase the resistance. Underrated training tool

To be fair I don't think I'm at 5% bodyfat anymore. I now eat a lot more because I wanna be in a calorie surplus for optimal muscle growth. I have shirts that fit me before christmas and now do not fit me anymore. The chest expander kinda increases the chest circumference, the whole shoulder girdle grows a little. Yes my lats are very underdeveloped compared to the rest. I'm gonna focus much more on overhead downward pulls now. I will also do more overhead presses because I wanna get those round cannonball shoulders haha.

Interesting that you mention arms because I was contemplating to cut out biceps and triceps isolation exercises altogether. I just feel like my arms particular my biceps grow a helluva lot faster than anything else. Wouldn't the time I spend on arms be much better spent on compound exercises like front chest pulls, overhead downwards pulls and overhead presses? I could cut out the arm stuff and increase the volume of those bigger exercises. Or will the bigger muscle groups eventually catch up anyways? What do you think?

Do You do any calisthenics or weighted exercises? Or is everything You do expander exercises? So You don't do any kind of bodybuilding type movements with Bruce's cables like chest press, rows, pulldowns, side laterals, etc...? I think You have done a good job as Josepz and others said. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm assuming that You are looking to improve the way You look via, Aesthetics? Everyone will have different opinions on how to do improve look wise. This is just my opinion nothing else. I believe in trying stuff for myself whether it's popular or not. There are many ways You can go that may work for You but not someone else, You're Young. I know You said You train everyday but sometimes our body needs rest whether we want to believe this or not. When You train the same movements everyday Your body adapts. With weights, Your'e only going to be able to add so much weight.

With cables, it's a little bit harder to add another cable so usually You have to add more reps or sets. So if You do the same thing everyday You're going to get the same results. Maybe it would be better to take some rest days in between Your workouts. Maybe do full body workouts or a upper/lower body split. The reason I say this is because it seems like You want to build aesthetics. You could experiment with low volume/high intensity or higher volume with lower intensity. If You could do calisthenics I would add Dips, Chins/Pull-ups and  some kind of Row. I know most here are against arm work but for me, it's makes my jobs easier. 

The only calisthenics I can do painfree are knee/leg raises. The only weighted exercises I do are floor flyes (regular dumbbell flys but on the floor) and squats where I hold one dumbbell with both hands in front of me. I should do those more often though. Lately I've just been training whatever and whenever I want.. and of course it's mostly exercises that I am already good at because who likes to train his weak points . I only realized it now that I thought about it more after reading your comment.

Everything else are expander/band exercises. I do a variation of biceps curls where the other end of the loop is connected to the sierra anchor at the bottom of the door. Sometimes I do hammer curls with bands, where I stand on one end and hammer curl the other. I also do UCV raises with loops connected to the anchor at the bottom of the door to hit the upper chest and front delts. For the triceps I do triceps pushdowns with bands connected to the anchor at the top of the door. Other than that it's classic expander exercises like overhead presses, front chest pulls and overhead downward pulls. Every now and then I do rows on the floor with my feet to the door and the loops connected with the anchor at the bottom of the door.

Bench presses, pull/chin-ups, dips, side laterals... those are all exercises that kill my shoulders. I cannot perform them painfree.

I'm trying to become a little stronger while achieving an aesthetic physique similar to Fred Rollon or even Bruce Lee. I prefer this lean, shredded look over big bulky, unproportional physiques like many bodybuilders have them. I also don't wanna be one of those big guys who cannot run a mile before gassing out because they carry around too much muscle. For me the human body should be like an efficient machine.

I always thought it would be best to have rest days in between but I've made much more progress since I train everyday. I train with high volume and low or moderate intensity, depending on how I feel. Every once in a while I have 1 or 2 days where I just feel tired. That's when I take it easy and go for a run or only train small muscle groups like forearms, rotators etc. I think I will just stick with it as long as it works for me.

What I will definitely do is stricter training like for example:

1 day: lats+traps (rows, frontchest pulls, overhead downward pulls)
2 day: abs (knee or leg raises)
3 day: shoulder rehab (external rotation, y-raise)
4 day: arms (biceps curls, triceps pushdowns)
5 day: chest (floor flies, UCV raise)
6 day: shoulders (overhead press)
7 day: legs (squads)
repeat

My plan has been to do some kind of split training with high volume/low intensity but I always get carried away and train too many muscle groups on one day.

[Michael]

Here are some videos that may interest You for building lats. You can do alot of stuff with Bruce's cables.

www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24/search?query=cable+exercises+for+the+lats

[justregularguy]

Mar 30, 2019 21:42:58 GMT Michael said:

Here are some videos that may interest You for building lats. You can do alot of stuff with Bruce's cables.

www.youtube.com/user/JDCav24/search?query=cable+exercises+for+the+lats

Awesome this one looks like a killer lat exercises that I can replicate with bands

[Michael]

JRG, also wanted to mention something since You have problems with pull-ups. If You have a pull-up bar You can put an anchor up high. You can do one arm or two arm pulldowns like on a machine. I haven't done these in a good while. I believe Bruce does this one arm at a time. I have Bruce's regular bands and his shorter bands so I can't remember which ones I used before. But I remember, You get on Your knees, I would have to sit on my calves. You really feel this in the lats. You can do them underhanded or overhanded. Also, that one straight arm pulldown was a favorite of mine but I did them two arms at a time. The variations are endless with the Sierra cables. Keep at it.

[mr potatohead]

When I do that type of exercise with bands, I sometimes do it in similar fashion to paddling a surfboard, using both arms pulling together (not the swimmer stroke - although I don't know why. Just feels right, I guess).
I lower/squat as I pull down/back, as I would if I was kneeling on the board, and raise up a little for the band assisted eccentric, like I would if reaching for more water, so it's kind of a rocking motion.

[mr potatohead]

Forgot to mention, like many exercises I do, I do holds at the pull positions where there is the most tension.

[justregularguy]

Getting there.. gotta make the good old Fred Rollon proud!
You cannot neglect overhead downward pulls! There is no substitution, they simply hit your back differently than rows and lat pulldowns.
Will start doing them more frequently again now.

[mr potatohead]

Looking good! I see you have lighting figured out.