Shoulders - Ditching the 5's?

So, my arms flexed equaling 17" flexed (cold) is what I need to be noting? Wow, I have always measured un-flexed... So overall, my physique is now bigger than Frank Zane's (if the stats I read on his measurements are credible). I find this hard to believe... Obviously I need to loose a bit of BF and he had amazing symmetry, but still...

Going by the calculator, it looks like I am about to max out on my arm growth anyway. Maybe they can grow another 1/2" and that is about it for my natural genetic potential. Maybe I am just my own harsh critic, but when I see myself in the mirror, I see the bodybuilder's shoulders and chest and then the arms just look under-developed. As an exaggerated statement, I see big barrel chest and matchstick arms. My body fat isn't too out of control either as I can see definition in the chest (ie the pec shape we all aim for) and the definition in the deltoids. Also, if I flex my abs I can see faint outline of abdominals. I am roughly guessing my BF is at 16%...

I am very interested in hearing some opinions on what people think I should do about prioritizing my training now. Is mentioned, I really feel that I need to back off on chest/back. I don't want to stop training these muscles all together, but I think I need to maintain or possibly allow chest to drop down in size a bit. I am keen to blast away at my arms and see if I can push the genetic potential here and make them grow that little bit more.

Keen to hear some thoughts...

Thanks.
 
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Your measurements will be quite a bit smaller once you cut down to frank Zane's bodyfat level. 17.5" is awesome, but I would bet if you cut down to 7% bodyfat, your measurements would be significantly smaller, so you still have some room to hypertrophy more most likely.

For example, my thighs are like 24.5", but I have fat legs, if I cut down to competition level leanness, my legs would be a lot smaller.

It's very hard to beat genetics, you have great genetics for chest/back apparently, and your arms sound like they are already quite big too. I would just keep training normal if I were you and see how you look when you cut down to below 10% bodyfat. Your chest may drop just from cutting alone.
 
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For arms specialization, I would do close grip dips for triceps with weights hanging from a belt, and barbell curls or preacher curls for biceps. Also maybe some skull crushers or overhead extensions to finish off the triceps.
 
Thanks for getting back to me.

I was thinking that about dropping the body fat. I knew I would drop down some, but didn't think it would be a huge amount. I don't carry much fat across my pecs and think it would be hard to actually do a pinch test on them. Still, maybe they will drop back when I cut back on calories...

I don't think I would ever like to go below 12% though. I don't want to compete and just feel my body would start fighting against it if I get beyond 12%.

Maybe you guys could share some of your measurements for me to get a good handle on where I am at? I forgot to add that I am 6ft tall too.

Thanks
 
Sadly, I cannot do dips. My wrists get inflamed BIG time... Only exercises I can seem to do are narrow grip bench with dumbbells in the hammer position (this kind of simulates a dip I thought) and kick-backs. But I am starting to discover the heavier I go on kick-backs, I am noticing a soreness in the rear of my deltoids and the soreness is not the good kind. I cannot do skull crushers due to tennis elbow.

Biceps I am trying to persist with chin-ups / pull-ups (looking to play around with this a little), ez-bar curls and alternate curls (Frank Zane himself told me to use these, so I am giving them a try).

Thanks.
 
I envy your chest. My chest sucks, I wish I had Schwarzenegger Pecs, but Instead I have crappy chest. I am specializing on chest/ back right now, as I have the opposite problem of arms look ok, but my chest/lats are weeny.
 
Thanks Sci... I appreciate your comments. However, having my chest this size does make things look not quite right. It is like whoa and then you see my arms and think hang on a minute... HST works! No doubt about it. My chest/back grew 4" since last September. I was shocked... With benching, I am up to about 84lbs - 86lbs with 1-arm dumbbells. I think this cycle of 5's, I am on track to reach 90lbs. Anyway, I need to work on the guns now...

So, are you guys able to share your measurements? Does easing up on chest make sense, or does this create another issue?
 
I am not nearly as big as you. But I have only been returned to training for 9 months after years of no training. So I have a ways to grow.

Last measurements, i took after cutting down to 12%, I had 15.5" arms, 42.5" chest if I remember correctly. I am hoping to get to 17" arms and 46" chest someday.
 
Renky, how tall, age and what is your waist measurement?

For comparison, I am now 5'8" or less after two back surgeries. My bf runs around 12% and I would not go below 10%, especially at 68 years old. Who knows when I may need some reserves? However, I have thought of competing when I get to 70 years as there is little competition left at that age of any musculature and I think I would do well. I will decide in 18 months or so and post pics for criticism and advice if I go the comp route. However, my wife is very anti-bobybuilding so I kind of doubt it.

My arms run 16.5+", chest 46" and waist 33-34". The waist is defined but not the "men's model" 6 pack emaciated look nor the bloated roid user look. I think my chest will max out at 48" as I am working on under-developed lats now. Arms look much larger because I have short arms, 32", and very defined tris so they actually look disproportionately large. Genetically skinny legs at about 24" but very defined so they look bigger when flexed. I weigh just a tad over 190 lbs.

Hope this helps.
 
Old and Grey - In my opinion, I think you have a good physique! To be honest, you would probably be doing better than me, especially with that BF percentage. Again (like Sci), you seem to have a better balance in my opinion. At the moment, I am all chest. I can only put this down to me having good chest genetics and just training away without really measuring them for a good while. Now I think I need to back off on chest and let arms come up in size to get a better balance. Maybe my arm length makes my arms look smaller too?

I hear you about the "Mrs" not being into bodybuilding. My wife hates it also and at the moment she feels I am out of control with my apparent size.
 
5'8", 46" chest and 33" waist at 68! Damn, that is awesome. You could definitely compete.
 
I think it's wise to prioritize some muscle groups while just maintaining others. It cuts down on boredom and I think as you age, you can't hit everything with the intensity you want.I'm 50, 6'2, 205lbs.Most measurements are taken pumped, iirc. Mine are:chest:50arms:18waist: I dunno, but wearing 32 waist shorts atm. thighs: I dunno, my thighs grow like crazy and my calves are pretty good. I havent measured them in a long time.Every body has issues. Mine is shoulder width. That and thin forearms, and my abs don't have much of a distinctive middle line after the upper pair.
 
Renky, say, for example, you weigh 200 lb @ 16% bf, then you'd need to drop over 13 lb of fat to get down to around 10% bf. Here I'm assuming no loss of lean mass but there will very likely be some loss of lean mass as you reduce your body fat level, so you might actually need to lose a few more pounds of fat to reach a true 10% bf—probably more like 16 or 17.

Frank Zane in his top condition was probably close to 5-7% bf. You can see that you would need to lose a fair amount of your current body weight—probably closer to 30 lb—to reach 5% bf level assuming about a 5lb loss of lean mass along the way. Even losing 25lb of fat would knock your measurements down quite a bit. It'd be that classic situation where you'd look much smaller when clothed and massive when not!

Have you tried using some wrist wraps to support your wrists for dips? I have weedy little wrists that complain a lot if I don't support them. Wrist wraps have been helpful for all my pressing movements and Olympic lifts.
 
lako - Very good measurements and condition! I will try the prioritizing and see how this goes. I feel that overall, I am about as big as I want to get and just need to work on some lagging areas to bring them up in order to balance.

LOL - I don't think the straps would help. I will be honest and say that I have not given them a try, but at the moment I cannot even do push ups due to wrist issues. I agree about the BF coming off and me dropping down in size. I think I would welcome my chest dropping back an inch or two.

I will never fully back off on training chest... I am doing narrow grip benches for tris and I think this works chest and shoulders to a degree also.

PS, how do the Pros get that big vein happening along the top of the bicep? Possibly genetics again?
 
Renky said:
PS, how do the Pros get that big vein happening along the top of the bicep? Possibly genetics again?
Click to expand...

Low bodyfat. You'll have it too, but only if you are willing to go to a very lean state.

When I was a skinny teenager, I had veiny arms, but since bulking up the veins are all hiding under the fat.
 
I don't know if I ever want to go below 12% body fat. I think the older I get, I feel that going below that will be serious hard work and I also feel my body will fight it too much. 12% is a pretty good level too I think.

I am not sure if I can work too much on cutting back cutting back body fat while I am still trying to grow lagging body parts. Some say that you can, but I think it would be a fine line.

I plan to hit the specialization hard over the next 6 months and see what happens. Will be interesting.

Does anyone else want to post their measurements?
 
My best parts are shoulders and back. Visually my arms looks small, they're too evenly round (thick rather than high.


@Renky - if you're keen on going for a more rounded look, work the back more. It's bigger, has more muscles and moves more weight.
 
@ Alex - I think I am pretty rounded now and I feel working the back more would make me even bigger. With the tape measuring 50", I simply need to back off on the chest/back. Most shirts I have are now too tight. I need to go hard on arms and see if I can bring them up more to match and then drop some body fat. Hopefully I will tone down just a little overall and add a bit more definition...

My wife is not all that happy with my size at present either. Apparently I have grown quite fast and more than I realized.

Thanks.
 
I find it strange that your women would be unhappy with your body changes. All the women I have partnered with over the last near decade that I've been doing HST were usually hesitant when I was gearing up for an increase in size, but once I was finished with that bulk/cut cycle, they always loved the results. My current companion is especially supportive of my endeavors, even though she admitted that she might not like it as much if I were to get up to Jay Cutler proportions. In my experience, they seem to enjoy the increased confidence you get when you look good and women all seem to like a man who is strong and powerful, for various reasons. I suppose it might depend on what sort of women you are pairing up with though.

So Renky, what size shirts do you wear now? I'm about ready to upgrade to the next higher size myself, I know what you mean about them getting too tight. I've complained about my paltry arms plenty but despite the noodles I'm sporting, my shirts are all getting tight and choking my pythons all day, it's annoying. Plus then you look like one of those jerks who wears a shirt too small in an effort to look bigger. I'm currently in XL shirts (american sizing, obviously) and considering slowly upgrading my wardrobe to 2Xs. Do you just not want to upgrade shirt sizes? I know it gets expensive, especially if you have a lot of suits and other professional clothing, but I try to look at it as something good, it means you've grown.
 
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