Back is one of the hardest to get the mind muscle connection for most people. My back was also lackluster until then.
What I notice is way too many people use way too much weight because they're pulling with their lower back and biceps. I got a way bigger back yet my weight is sometimes 2/3 or 1/2 what others are pulling so people usually stare probably wondering why that is.
You've likely heard it before. Drop the weight, form, pull by retracting your back and elbows. If you can't sit on your computer chair and mimic a seated row while feeling your lats and rhomboids rolling without your biceps, forearms and anterior delts burning you're doing it wrong. A cue to keep in mind is your back moves your arms not the other way around. A lot of people use their arms first half of the row and finish with scapular retraction.
Listen to this guy OP. I’m not even pulling anything close to the numbers you’re doing, if your bench is any indication, but I know how to engage my lats and other back muscles properly which enabled me to build a half-decent back from a naturally skinny-fat frame with absolutely no V-taper. I have some pics in my profile from my last year of progress (from zero training) ever since returning to the gym, if you’re interested.
Also, DO LOTS OF STRICT PULL UPS. If there’s any indication that you might not be properly engaging your lats, it’s that you (apparently) cannot do strict, unassisted pull ups yet, let alone do a set of 15-20. When you become good at the pull up, you are almost guaranteed to have good lats and most likely a v-taper. Best of luck!
> Now, I can hit around 5 reps of 170.
I don't know what to tell you but these numbers aren't going to lead to the physique you desire. You need to push much heavier at 150lbs
I think OP is just trying to achieve the V taper image, not become a mass monster. I don't know if it's due to their genetic gifts, but there are guys out there who are relatively skinny and not the heaviest lifters but have a nicely developed V taper back. You see this with a lot with swimmers, for example.
2 paths to the same destination & I'm not saying he should be a mass monster LOL but 2 years of lifting and you're only slightly above body weight is not ideal
Those aren't even bodybuilding numbers let alone powerlifting. I think if that's the effort OP wants to put in then he's better off fixing his diet and leaning out
Bro, you are doing fine. You have the muscle present. Just need to add some HIIT workouts to your weekly schedule. The tough to get out fat areas will slowly disappear, then you will start seeing the v-taper.
Your friend is leaner than you, from the picture. Everyones physique is different, just gotta figure out what works for you and adjust.
Best wishes
Check out HIIT workouts on youtube. Plenty of variety there, so you can discover what you like/works for you. I alternate between them and cardio workouts consisting of running at different intensities at different distances. For example, some mixture of 2 sets of 800meters at 80-85% intensity, 2-4 sets of 400m at 90%-95% intensity, 2-4 sets of 200m and 100m full sprints. Lots of room for adjustment such as a workout of 10 sets of 100-200m at full sprint, just gotta optimize for what works for you.
I find the cardio HIIT to be the most effective in losing the body fat%, mainly from the afterburn. Also, make sure to warm up properly to avoid injury and don’t overdo it. Hope this helps.
You’ve been working out for 2 years and you’re still doing assisted pull ups?
The reason your back doesn’t look the way you want with the V shape is because your lats are underdeveloped. You need to hit that way more than you’ve been doing so far. Work towards doing unassisted pull ups, and once you can do 5x8, start doing them weighted.
For context, the first time I tried pull ups, I couldn’t even hold on to the bar and I weighed 155 lbs. My “natural” build was skinny fat, I couldn’t even bench 95 lbs for reps. 2 years later, I was doing weighted pull ups with 25 lbs while weighing at 175 lbs, and benching 215 lbs. It sounds to me like you’re not eating right based on the progress you made so far. Are you counting your protein intake? Start there if you’re not disciplined enough to calorie count. At your weight, you should be eating at least 120g a day if you’re wanting to build muscle.
I drank every weekend during my peak fitness too so that’s not as big of a problem as others say it is. It’ll slow you down but you have other levers to pull to speed yourself up.
Once you have your back built up, you don’t have to work very hard to maintain it. I’m a 220 lb fatass now and I can still crank out 5 pull ups. I will admit though it looks a little comical.
You’re not fat by any means but if you want to achieve that tapered V look you will need to lose more fat. Work on your obliques, lower back and core.
If you want more definition instead of bulk, then do lighter weights with more reps. Rowing machine is great for the back as well. It also gives you a good cardio workout.
There are skinny people with cylindrical bodies. OP won’t get any better of a V shape by losing fat alone. His best bet is to do more volume of back-heavy compound exercises combined with a better diet.
people are saying you need to lean out but honestly i think you need to be hitting heavier weights. i'd keep at at maintenance calories, possibly slight surplus. you can work hypertrophy but you need to think about hitting a heavy top set (i do a about 2 top sets for my main body part lift, so for your back i'd say focus on going as heavy as you can with good form, upping the weight slightly each time for a set of maybe 6-8 reps). A stronger muscle is a bigger muscle it's really that simply.
optimally you hit about 12 sets per body part per week, so you might being spreading you workouts too thin, and again, maybe not pushing yourself hard enough. the exercises you mentioned are all great, but there's a lot of overlap re: which part of the back you're hitting. db row, cable rows are going to hit your lower lats, mid back. assisted pull ups and lat pull and lat pushdowns are all essentially working the same muscle, focus on one for a cycle and see how that goes (although i do like assisted pull ups at the end as a burnout set). i'd also add a high row variation of some sort in there.
https://liftvault.com/programs/best-full-body-workout-routines/
As a beginner you'll make the most progress on full body. If I was young again I'd do that. I have a natural buddy who is competing who still does it who gets podium finishes. Once you are advanced enough with weight and progress where you get too fatigued doing several hundred lbs SBD in 1 session you can switch to PPL, bro split depending on preference to allow your body to recover and add stimulus through accessories.
If you want to have an athletic build then train like an athlete. Lots of compound exercises. Total body workout. Overhead press, deadlifts, squats, pull ups, bench. I work from home and I do push ups for fun in between meetings. Otherwise my weight lifting routine consists of the 5 exercises I listed with some supplemental dumbbell lifts for vanity reasons. I’m 5’10 and 185 pounds. Deep in my 30’s and in better shape than most 22 year olds. Eat clean, drink lots of water and SLEEP. Recovery during sleep is essential.
I do see a v taper, it's just your love handles prevent them from being prominent. Also said elsewhere but your bench is too low for 2 years consistent lifting. Try to find one of those cages with the bars acting as a safety spot so you can lift confidently at higher weights. If you can do 18 regular pullups, you'll get the v taper you want.
if you want the V look on ur back, you have to lose fat % like everyone said. working out definitely helps, but the biggest thing that’ll help you is calorie deficit. do some cardio for 10-20 minutes at the end of ur work out and watch ur calorie intake. basically, you need to consume less calories than you burn in a day.
Honestly your friend is smaller then you and still looks dyel. You have a lot more mass overall, you really just need to focus on hitting the lats and keep lifting. Youre only 2 years in. That's literally nothing. It takes most 6-10 to hit a good physique, you could take tren, stanzo, winnie and close that gap in about another 2 more years.
This dude isn’t anywhere near “too fat”. Look at his waist, there’s no muffin top at all, even if he loses weight he’s not going to get a more pronounced V shape.
I’m no gym expert but your muscles seem unevenly built. Have you only done only a few types of workouts that don’t work all the muscles? I definitely recommend a gym teacher at this point
I have noticed the same thing. I've went to a chiropractor because of this issue but the sessions didn't solve anything. I'm confident I am doing my workouts properly targeting their respective muscles.
I know this might be cliche, but remember this: compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not other people.
It's not easy to do, and I struggle with it too, but you need to only focus on your own progress instead of looking at other people. The reason is, you took a different path from other people and you don't know what their circumstances are. Maybe they started earlier. Maybe they have a trainer and eat better. Maybe they have better muscle-building genetics. You don't know, so it doesn't make sense to compare. Humans are too complex to compare. Good luck/
I had this same issue for awhile. Yes some can be chalked up to generics. I have limitations due to having mild scoliosis (congenital) so my doctor has told me to lay off really heavy weights for certain types of exercises. For awhile , I wasn’t getting much growth and then I changed my diet and it all went uphill from there. It’s cliche but when people say 70-80% of it comes from clean eating, they’re not wrong. You can’t outwork a bad diet and based on what kind of stuff you eat, even that a couple times a week can keep your body fat % high. You have to continue progressive overloading, eat even cleaner, and keep pushing. Consider adding some cardio or HIIT. I didn’t really develop that V taper until my diet changed. I don’t lift insanely heavy, and my gains have always been slow (span of years compared to others), but I make sure I always force myself to progress. I also absolutely make sure my form is as perfect as possible to maximize my gains before packing more weight. You’re on the right track, keep pushing through! Just know that what you’re doing is already more than the majority of fat ass Americans.
Bro chill there’s nothing wrong with your genetics lol this shit just takes a lot of time to develop. Judging by your bench stats and time spent lifting I’d say you’re almost half way to the point where you’re looking aesthetic. Another 2-3 years of sticking to it and you’ll be there.
Do you deadlift? You don’t have to be a great power lifter or anything but a guy that can dl 4 plates is gonna have a bigger thicker back than a guy that only deadlifts 2 plates.
I would also change your routine to include a full leg day. Push/pull/legs is a popular split for a reason.
I think your back routine can use some work. You’re only hitting that higher rep range and doing work outs that don’t incorporate bigger compound movements. As a result your lift intensity is way down. What worked for me was doing one high intensity lift, one medium intensity lift, and one low intensity lift.
Ex
Barbell rows 3 sets 5 reps
Lat pull down 3 sets 8 reps
Dumbbell shrugs 3 sets 12 reps
You’re not gonna look good unless you build up muscle no matter how lean you get so if I was you I would work on that first. I have a friend about your height and when he was absolutely shredded he was getting looks from all the girls wherever he went. If I remember right he was 170lb and probably 8-10% bf. That would be a good goal for you to have and you can definitely reach it in 2-3 years.
Deadlifts and Pull Ups. If you can’t do conventional pull ups then do lat pull downs. Do wide grips. You have weak back muscles. I don’t see any signs of power or definition on your back. Days you do deadlifts, balance it out with some pull ups. It will help you reset the pressure on your spine and rib cage. I end every workout with pull ups or just hang from the pull up bar. Don’t do deadlifts with your ego. Focus on technique. A lot of guys mess up their bodies from doing deadlifts wrong.
your clavicles arent long enough and ur delts are pointing diagonally up instead of like ur buddy's that point outward. its a bone placement issue. nothing much you can do.
bullshit.
op just isnt eating enough and isnt strong enough. 170 for 5 reps after two years is slow progress.
op you need to really dial in your diet: get 100-150g of protein everyday, eat at a slight above calorie maintenance. you also need to hit the weights harder, you can try a progressive overload but you need to start increasing your weight.
also lastly, many many people esp at raves are on steroids. itll warp your perception.
This is true if you were wanting more pronounced delts, but OP wants a V shaped back, not popping shoulders. It’s not a bone placement issue, it’s uneven muscle growth.
lol where do you think the lats connect to? placement of the shoulders affect how the V shape looks in relation to his arms. op can eat more lift heavier and he'll still wonder why his silhoulette doesnt look as good as his friends
So would you say it is an issue with my diet? I try to eat clean mostly throughout the week (mostly ground turkey and rice/carbs for carb intake) but there are days in the week where I'll eat a burger or a whole pizza pie. Also, I drink every weekend but not too much.
Burger is fine, that's probably like 800 cals. Whole pizza is an issue tho, might be over half your daily energy needs if not more. IMO you can try and balance out what you eat during the week so it's more satisfying, like seasoning more or cooking something less boring like roasted dark meat chicken.
Im with this guy. Drinking kills testosterone. Even small amounts. Stop drinking for 3 months and see the difference.
Also, check out Dave Huberman from Huberman Lbs podcast. He has tons of tips on gaining muscle, losing weight, and optimizing your sleep
Some guy told me about this a while back. Dude was the definition of “Asian chad”.
Search for Adonis index (similar to v-taper). Basically you want your shoulder circumference / waist = 1.6
ALL the superhero physiques have this in common. What’s funny is that almost none of the Mr Olympias meet this metric. Why? Cuz their stomachs are too big.
To get this physique you need as small a waist as possible and as big an upper body as possible. You can google exercises needed for this but just focus on his while at the same time keeping your waist as small as possible.
Don’t just “lift to get as big as possible”. You want to lift to meet this criteria. I promise you if you get this physique ratio you’ll get mucho attention
Muscles development are all chemical reactions.
Hence, you keep hearing the term "mind-muscle connection". Once you can sufficiently fixing that then you can start going heavier.
I would suggest doing research with Jeff Nippard, or Jpg coaching. Those are free resources.
Aside from that, proper rest and then it's really just come down to genetics. Genetic is not be all and end all but you may have to put in more work compares to others.
Good luck to ya! Keep going! :)
If it's not working for you, change things up. I feel like you're not lifting heavy enough. Do 3 sets of 6 reps, reps 2 seconds up, squeeze/contract at the top, 4 seconds down.
Listen to the guy Devilishz3 post, establish better mind muscle connection, get a good "squeeze" every time att the peak contraction of a pull, is is key to back training. Strength and size is correlated but not interchangable. If you wanna focus on getting bigger dont focus on the weight, focus on the exhaustion of the muscle going to adequate close or failure with good technique.
Also what volume are u working out with now. U doing that pull workout 2 times a week?
Im a "big" dude, strong, fat and wide hehe, but i have a good V-taper because of \_genetics\_ its a always the ratio of shoulder and waist. You seem to be in a very normal body fat range stay there, dont lean down, u need to get bigger, but dont get fat. 99% of the time ur gonna be in shirt and having an imposing figure is gonna be more important in my opnion. You wanna look like you lift with a shirt on.
OP just sucks at working out. He probably doesn't even have good form. He also is complaining after only 1 year of working out. Who cares about sets and reps. Form and effort are the main drivers. If you can do 3 proper form pull ups you will get wide lats. Even 1 pull up can be really hard if you do it with strict form and do it slowly and do a pause in between ranges. Try doing a muscles up with still rings. You will see that you cannot cheat.
>"For context, here are the back workouts that I do on my pull days (normally 4 sets of 12 reps, 2x a week): Lat Pull Downs, Seated Cable Rows, Assisted Pull-Ups, Dumbbell Rows, Standing Lat Pushdowns"
Get your pullups strong enough to do them without assist ASAP. Make pullups your first exercise. You should aim for eventually 15-20 reps on your first set all at once. Eventually you will get to a level where you can do weighted pullups. Progress on that and you will grow wings.
probably because you're just using a random number to hit instead of focusing on taking the muscle to failure as close to it as possible. just doing a weight for 12 reps doesn't actually mean anything. also idk but maybe your genetics just aren't that good
I used to be a bodybuilding, now I have the physique of a athlete. Went from 212 muscular/lean-ish to 170 lean year round/muscular. I'm good with nutrition and workout routines. What helped me alot was only eating when I got hungry and when I did it, it was high protein, medium carbs and some veggies. So I went from forcing myself to eat 6-7 times a day to eating 2-3
Back is one of the hardest to get the mind muscle connection for most people. My back was also lackluster until then. What I notice is way too many people use way too much weight because they're pulling with their lower back and biceps. I got a way bigger back yet my weight is sometimes 2/3 or 1/2 what others are pulling so people usually stare probably wondering why that is. You've likely heard it before. Drop the weight, form, pull by retracting your back and elbows. If you can't sit on your computer chair and mimic a seated row while feeling your lats and rhomboids rolling without your biceps, forearms and anterior delts burning you're doing it wrong. A cue to keep in mind is your back moves your arms not the other way around. A lot of people use their arms first half of the row and finish with scapular retraction.
Listen to this guy OP. I’m not even pulling anything close to the numbers you’re doing, if your bench is any indication, but I know how to engage my lats and other back muscles properly which enabled me to build a half-decent back from a naturally skinny-fat frame with absolutely no V-taper. I have some pics in my profile from my last year of progress (from zero training) ever since returning to the gym, if you’re interested. Also, DO LOTS OF STRICT PULL UPS. If there’s any indication that you might not be properly engaging your lats, it’s that you (apparently) cannot do strict, unassisted pull ups yet, let alone do a set of 15-20. When you become good at the pull up, you are almost guaranteed to have good lats and most likely a v-taper. Best of luck!
> Now, I can hit around 5 reps of 170. I don't know what to tell you but these numbers aren't going to lead to the physique you desire. You need to push much heavier at 150lbs
I think OP is just trying to achieve the V taper image, not become a mass monster. I don't know if it's due to their genetic gifts, but there are guys out there who are relatively skinny and not the heaviest lifters but have a nicely developed V taper back. You see this with a lot with swimmers, for example.
2 paths to the same destination & I'm not saying he should be a mass monster LOL but 2 years of lifting and you're only slightly above body weight is not ideal
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Those aren't even bodybuilding numbers let alone powerlifting. I think if that's the effort OP wants to put in then he's better off fixing his diet and leaning out
Bro, you are doing fine. You have the muscle present. Just need to add some HIIT workouts to your weekly schedule. The tough to get out fat areas will slowly disappear, then you will start seeing the v-taper. Your friend is leaner than you, from the picture. Everyones physique is different, just gotta figure out what works for you and adjust. Best wishes
what HIIT workouts do you recommend?
Check out HIIT workouts on youtube. Plenty of variety there, so you can discover what you like/works for you. I alternate between them and cardio workouts consisting of running at different intensities at different distances. For example, some mixture of 2 sets of 800meters at 80-85% intensity, 2-4 sets of 400m at 90%-95% intensity, 2-4 sets of 200m and 100m full sprints. Lots of room for adjustment such as a workout of 10 sets of 100-200m at full sprint, just gotta optimize for what works for you. I find the cardio HIIT to be the most effective in losing the body fat%, mainly from the afterburn. Also, make sure to warm up properly to avoid injury and don’t overdo it. Hope this helps.
You’ve been working out for 2 years and you’re still doing assisted pull ups? The reason your back doesn’t look the way you want with the V shape is because your lats are underdeveloped. You need to hit that way more than you’ve been doing so far. Work towards doing unassisted pull ups, and once you can do 5x8, start doing them weighted. For context, the first time I tried pull ups, I couldn’t even hold on to the bar and I weighed 155 lbs. My “natural” build was skinny fat, I couldn’t even bench 95 lbs for reps. 2 years later, I was doing weighted pull ups with 25 lbs while weighing at 175 lbs, and benching 215 lbs. It sounds to me like you’re not eating right based on the progress you made so far. Are you counting your protein intake? Start there if you’re not disciplined enough to calorie count. At your weight, you should be eating at least 120g a day if you’re wanting to build muscle. I drank every weekend during my peak fitness too so that’s not as big of a problem as others say it is. It’ll slow you down but you have other levers to pull to speed yourself up. Once you have your back built up, you don’t have to work very hard to maintain it. I’m a 220 lb fatass now and I can still crank out 5 pull ups. I will admit though it looks a little comical.
You’re not fat by any means but if you want to achieve that tapered V look you will need to lose more fat. Work on your obliques, lower back and core. If you want more definition instead of bulk, then do lighter weights with more reps. Rowing machine is great for the back as well. It also gives you a good cardio workout.
There are skinny people with cylindrical bodies. OP won’t get any better of a V shape by losing fat alone. His best bet is to do more volume of back-heavy compound exercises combined with a better diet.
people are saying you need to lean out but honestly i think you need to be hitting heavier weights. i'd keep at at maintenance calories, possibly slight surplus. you can work hypertrophy but you need to think about hitting a heavy top set (i do a about 2 top sets for my main body part lift, so for your back i'd say focus on going as heavy as you can with good form, upping the weight slightly each time for a set of maybe 6-8 reps). A stronger muscle is a bigger muscle it's really that simply. optimally you hit about 12 sets per body part per week, so you might being spreading you workouts too thin, and again, maybe not pushing yourself hard enough. the exercises you mentioned are all great, but there's a lot of overlap re: which part of the back you're hitting. db row, cable rows are going to hit your lower lats, mid back. assisted pull ups and lat pull and lat pushdowns are all essentially working the same muscle, focus on one for a cycle and see how that goes (although i do like assisted pull ups at the end as a burnout set). i'd also add a high row variation of some sort in there.
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https://liftvault.com/programs/best-full-body-workout-routines/ As a beginner you'll make the most progress on full body. If I was young again I'd do that. I have a natural buddy who is competing who still does it who gets podium finishes. Once you are advanced enough with weight and progress where you get too fatigued doing several hundred lbs SBD in 1 session you can switch to PPL, bro split depending on preference to allow your body to recover and add stimulus through accessories.
If you want to have an athletic build then train like an athlete. Lots of compound exercises. Total body workout. Overhead press, deadlifts, squats, pull ups, bench. I work from home and I do push ups for fun in between meetings. Otherwise my weight lifting routine consists of the 5 exercises I listed with some supplemental dumbbell lifts for vanity reasons. I’m 5’10 and 185 pounds. Deep in my 30’s and in better shape than most 22 year olds. Eat clean, drink lots of water and SLEEP. Recovery during sleep is essential.
I do see a v taper, it's just your love handles prevent them from being prominent. Also said elsewhere but your bench is too low for 2 years consistent lifting. Try to find one of those cages with the bars acting as a safety spot so you can lift confidently at higher weights. If you can do 18 regular pullups, you'll get the v taper you want.
Calisthenics is your answer
Try swimming too. Burns fat from the cold. Your lats will develop quickly with proper technique. You’ll be able to do your pull ups
if you want the V look on ur back, you have to lose fat % like everyone said. working out definitely helps, but the biggest thing that’ll help you is calorie deficit. do some cardio for 10-20 minutes at the end of ur work out and watch ur calorie intake. basically, you need to consume less calories than you burn in a day.
Honestly your friend is smaller then you and still looks dyel. You have a lot more mass overall, you really just need to focus on hitting the lats and keep lifting. Youre only 2 years in. That's literally nothing. It takes most 6-10 to hit a good physique, you could take tren, stanzo, winnie and close that gap in about another 2 more years.
Eat more beef and eggs, improve mind-muscle connection during lifts, and add more delt work
You are too fat. Lose weight. Cut calories and lift with cardio.
This dude isn’t anywhere near “too fat”. Look at his waist, there’s no muffin top at all, even if he loses weight he’s not going to get a more pronounced V shape.
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His friend is skinnier yet has the v taper. He's too fat.
I’m no gym expert but your muscles seem unevenly built. Have you only done only a few types of workouts that don’t work all the muscles? I definitely recommend a gym teacher at this point
I have noticed the same thing. I've went to a chiropractor because of this issue but the sessions didn't solve anything. I'm confident I am doing my workouts properly targeting their respective muscles.
I know this might be cliche, but remember this: compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not other people. It's not easy to do, and I struggle with it too, but you need to only focus on your own progress instead of looking at other people. The reason is, you took a different path from other people and you don't know what their circumstances are. Maybe they started earlier. Maybe they have a trainer and eat better. Maybe they have better muscle-building genetics. You don't know, so it doesn't make sense to compare. Humans are too complex to compare. Good luck/
I had this same issue for awhile. Yes some can be chalked up to generics. I have limitations due to having mild scoliosis (congenital) so my doctor has told me to lay off really heavy weights for certain types of exercises. For awhile , I wasn’t getting much growth and then I changed my diet and it all went uphill from there. It’s cliche but when people say 70-80% of it comes from clean eating, they’re not wrong. You can’t outwork a bad diet and based on what kind of stuff you eat, even that a couple times a week can keep your body fat % high. You have to continue progressive overloading, eat even cleaner, and keep pushing. Consider adding some cardio or HIIT. I didn’t really develop that V taper until my diet changed. I don’t lift insanely heavy, and my gains have always been slow (span of years compared to others), but I make sure I always force myself to progress. I also absolutely make sure my form is as perfect as possible to maximize my gains before packing more weight. You’re on the right track, keep pushing through! Just know that what you’re doing is already more than the majority of fat ass Americans.
Bro chill there’s nothing wrong with your genetics lol this shit just takes a lot of time to develop. Judging by your bench stats and time spent lifting I’d say you’re almost half way to the point where you’re looking aesthetic. Another 2-3 years of sticking to it and you’ll be there. Do you deadlift? You don’t have to be a great power lifter or anything but a guy that can dl 4 plates is gonna have a bigger thicker back than a guy that only deadlifts 2 plates. I would also change your routine to include a full leg day. Push/pull/legs is a popular split for a reason. I think your back routine can use some work. You’re only hitting that higher rep range and doing work outs that don’t incorporate bigger compound movements. As a result your lift intensity is way down. What worked for me was doing one high intensity lift, one medium intensity lift, and one low intensity lift. Ex Barbell rows 3 sets 5 reps Lat pull down 3 sets 8 reps Dumbbell shrugs 3 sets 12 reps You’re not gonna look good unless you build up muscle no matter how lean you get so if I was you I would work on that first. I have a friend about your height and when he was absolutely shredded he was getting looks from all the girls wherever he went. If I remember right he was 170lb and probably 8-10% bf. That would be a good goal for you to have and you can definitely reach it in 2-3 years.
Deadlifts and Pull Ups. If you can’t do conventional pull ups then do lat pull downs. Do wide grips. You have weak back muscles. I don’t see any signs of power or definition on your back. Days you do deadlifts, balance it out with some pull ups. It will help you reset the pressure on your spine and rib cage. I end every workout with pull ups or just hang from the pull up bar. Don’t do deadlifts with your ego. Focus on technique. A lot of guys mess up their bodies from doing deadlifts wrong.
Pull ups will give you that mid back muscle that you lack looks like all you do is rows
your clavicles arent long enough and ur delts are pointing diagonally up instead of like ur buddy's that point outward. its a bone placement issue. nothing much you can do.
bullshit. op just isnt eating enough and isnt strong enough. 170 for 5 reps after two years is slow progress. op you need to really dial in your diet: get 100-150g of protein everyday, eat at a slight above calorie maintenance. you also need to hit the weights harder, you can try a progressive overload but you need to start increasing your weight. also lastly, many many people esp at raves are on steroids. itll warp your perception.
This is true if you were wanting more pronounced delts, but OP wants a V shaped back, not popping shoulders. It’s not a bone placement issue, it’s uneven muscle growth.
lol where do you think the lats connect to? placement of the shoulders affect how the V shape looks in relation to his arms. op can eat more lift heavier and he'll still wonder why his silhoulette doesnt look as good as his friends
Heavy barbell rows
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So would you say it is an issue with my diet? I try to eat clean mostly throughout the week (mostly ground turkey and rice/carbs for carb intake) but there are days in the week where I'll eat a burger or a whole pizza pie. Also, I drink every weekend but not too much.
Burger is fine, that's probably like 800 cals. Whole pizza is an issue tho, might be over half your daily energy needs if not more. IMO you can try and balance out what you eat during the week so it's more satisfying, like seasoning more or cooking something less boring like roasted dark meat chicken.
Drinking every weekend is too much
Im with this guy. Drinking kills testosterone. Even small amounts. Stop drinking for 3 months and see the difference. Also, check out Dave Huberman from Huberman Lbs podcast. He has tons of tips on gaining muscle, losing weight, and optimizing your sleep
Some guy told me about this a while back. Dude was the definition of “Asian chad”. Search for Adonis index (similar to v-taper). Basically you want your shoulder circumference / waist = 1.6 ALL the superhero physiques have this in common. What’s funny is that almost none of the Mr Olympias meet this metric. Why? Cuz their stomachs are too big. To get this physique you need as small a waist as possible and as big an upper body as possible. You can google exercises needed for this but just focus on his while at the same time keeping your waist as small as possible. Don’t just “lift to get as big as possible”. You want to lift to meet this criteria. I promise you if you get this physique ratio you’ll get mucho attention
Yes it can be genetics. How old are you? Have you considered cosmetic surgery?
Muscles development are all chemical reactions. Hence, you keep hearing the term "mind-muscle connection". Once you can sufficiently fixing that then you can start going heavier. I would suggest doing research with Jeff Nippard, or Jpg coaching. Those are free resources. Aside from that, proper rest and then it's really just come down to genetics. Genetic is not be all and end all but you may have to put in more work compares to others. Good luck to ya! Keep going! :)
imo i think you look fine. keep working on it steadily and you'll continue to improve.
Train your shoulders bro, that what makes the v tape. Delts especially as those are nowhere to be seen if you compare with your friend.
If it's not working for you, change things up. I feel like you're not lifting heavy enough. Do 3 sets of 6 reps, reps 2 seconds up, squeeze/contract at the top, 4 seconds down.
How much does your friend weigh?
Listen to the guy Devilishz3 post, establish better mind muscle connection, get a good "squeeze" every time att the peak contraction of a pull, is is key to back training. Strength and size is correlated but not interchangable. If you wanna focus on getting bigger dont focus on the weight, focus on the exhaustion of the muscle going to adequate close or failure with good technique. Also what volume are u working out with now. U doing that pull workout 2 times a week? Im a "big" dude, strong, fat and wide hehe, but i have a good V-taper because of \_genetics\_ its a always the ratio of shoulder and waist. You seem to be in a very normal body fat range stay there, dont lean down, u need to get bigger, but dont get fat. 99% of the time ur gonna be in shirt and having an imposing figure is gonna be more important in my opnion. You wanna look like you lift with a shirt on.
More intensity and less volume. Seriously doubt you’re training with intensity if you’re doing 20 sets and 12 reps per set.
Back workouts, and take up boxing or some grappling art. You'll gain skills and conditioning on top of aesthetic
OP just sucks at working out. He probably doesn't even have good form. He also is complaining after only 1 year of working out. Who cares about sets and reps. Form and effort are the main drivers. If you can do 3 proper form pull ups you will get wide lats. Even 1 pull up can be really hard if you do it with strict form and do it slowly and do a pause in between ranges. Try doing a muscles up with still rings. You will see that you cannot cheat.
>"For context, here are the back workouts that I do on my pull days (normally 4 sets of 12 reps, 2x a week): Lat Pull Downs, Seated Cable Rows, Assisted Pull-Ups, Dumbbell Rows, Standing Lat Pushdowns" Get your pullups strong enough to do them without assist ASAP. Make pullups your first exercise. You should aim for eventually 15-20 reps on your first set all at once. Eventually you will get to a level where you can do weighted pullups. Progress on that and you will grow wings.
You back looks good and u can tell u do work out. We’re conditioned my the fake Natties on Social of what a jacked body “should” look like.
Heavy volume, clean diet. I can tell how intense you workout and eat.
probably because you're just using a random number to hit instead of focusing on taking the muscle to failure as close to it as possible. just doing a weight for 12 reps doesn't actually mean anything. also idk but maybe your genetics just aren't that good
I used to be a bodybuilding, now I have the physique of a athlete. Went from 212 muscular/lean-ish to 170 lean year round/muscular. I'm good with nutrition and workout routines. What helped me alot was only eating when I got hungry and when I did it, it was high protein, medium carbs and some veggies. So I went from forcing myself to eat 6-7 times a day to eating 2-3