Monkfish - Rate my fins.....

[HollywoodJon]

You look better than 99% of men in this country, but...

..probably 12-14 pounds of muscle short of competition standard.

I'm not at any sort of great level but you'll know when you're ready- every other 18 year old in the gym will keep stopping you to ask what you're taking and how long you've been training for!

There are probably only 2 or 3 guys in my gym who have that 'wow' factor; maybe one day it'll be me too?

[astraturbo]

did you up the calories and change your routine then? you have made good progress.

[Monkfish]

Cheers guys, increased calories (focussed on doing it with protein and fat) and have put my scale weight from 13st 13lb to 14 st 6lb you really think I'm 12lb/14lb away from comp muscle mass? Went along to an NPA meet a while ago and none of the novice guys looked that heavy. Maybe the fact that I'm so tall means I'll need to be a lot heavier tho?!

I know what you mean about people looking a cut above everyone else. There are loads of big guys in the gym, but a couple that are so shreaded everyone just has to do a double-take.

What do you think needs most improvement? Thanks for comments

[cheef]

lookin good mate

[greg]

Some good size there. Well done dude. Look more solid and vascular than from the last pics btw.

[Monkfish]

Thanks very much

Think I'll continue a lean bulk until the end of January, take some more progress pics to see where I am, and then start a 14/16 week week cut ready for competition.

Will really need to change my attitude towards food then. I'm on over 3500cal a day right now and loving it if I've not eaten in an hour I feel 'hungry'... haha!

[Monkfish]

Right, I've passed the 15 stone mark and got my 'big three' total to over 500kg, the only thing left to do in 2009 was post some progress pics:









How am I doing? I know I've put on some fat (!), but can you see anything that really needs focussing on? I've got a little over two months before the competition diet begins, so precious little time to bring up weak points!

Your comments are really appreciated, it can be hard to be objective when it's yourself you're analysing... so thanks!

[suj]

looking good MF, i'd say your chest is the weakest part if being cynical
try and add more volume mate, and you'd look really good mate

good going on the 500+kg total

[Was_once_fat_dave]

quads look like they've gained a fair few lbs, nice arm volume too, well biceps anyhow, difficult to see tri's from your pose's. The front double bicep almost shows some tri volume.

I agree with sujy regards the chest, and I can't quite place it with the lats. They look huge from the front, yet from the back they allmost look none existant. Can you show us a rear lat spread? As am sure they'll pop right out in that pose.

Really don't mean this to sound like a negative post, as it's not meant to be, you've come on loads from the earlier pics. Just thought you'd appreciate some observations. You got a 20x better figure than the fat git typing this post.

[stronglikewood]

You're looking really good monk. I was just reading my first comment in this thread, I think I'd change it now and say that you'd look really awesome under 90kg and that you don't need to be as heavy as that. What do people around you think your weight will be in show condition? 85-86?

Your back and arms have improved the most.

I'd agree with the other guys about the chest comment but I have a feeling it will look a lot better when you lean up. Perhaps you could do 6 week upper chest priority where you train it 2-3 times per week? There's a few articles on Tnation recently about bringing up a bodypart at a time by prioritising it for 6 weeks or so.

TMUSCLE.com | Button-Popping Pecs in Just 8 Weeks

TMUSCLE.com | Specialized Training - One Bodypart at a Time

Quote

Principles of Specialization Programs

When writing a specialization program, the first things to consider are volume and frequency. It should go without saying that when prioritizing a muscle, you need to train it more. Not only with more sets and reps, but a much greater frequency, too.

For a specialization program to be optimally effective, it must meet the following criteria:

High Overall Frequency — In a perfect world, I'd have people training once every 36 hours. When that isn't possible, every other day is the next best option. At the minimum, you should be able to figure out how to squeeze in three workouts per week.

High Weekly Volume, Moderate Workout Volume — Your total weekly volume is going to be pretty high. Between three and four training sessions per week, you're getting a lot of total work for the selected muscle group. I recommend that you generally aim for 40 to 50 sets per week, broken into as many sessions as possible.

Of course, that recommendation doesn't account for reps or load, so here are some more specifics.

50 Sets Per Week:
15 Sets of High Reps — 12-15
15 Sets of Moderate Reps — 8-12
15 Sets of Low Reps — 6 or below
5 Sets of Very High Reps — 18-25 Reps

Moderately High Intensity — Given that you'll be training with both high volume and high frequency, finding the right intensity is important. As a starting point, I recommend using roughly 90% of your max in a given rep range.

So if your 10RM on the bench press is 225 pounds, use roughly 200 pounds for sets of 10.

This recommendation stands regardless of the rep range.