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colgate's training log - mouse to bulldog

Joined
Aug 5, 2021
Goal
BANG!! japanese chicks!
Age
27
Motto
consistency. acceptance. tumescence.
Location
tokyo, japan
This is my log to document getting towards an elite body. Not every guy needs an elite body to have success with women, but if you don't have naturally appealing looks / race+height disadvantages then not striving for an elite body is shooting yourself in the foot. Plus it just jacks up your self-esteem.

I think I'm starting from a somewhat average looking body from initially doing stronglifts for a bit and then sporadic working out over the past 3 years. But average isn't enough and I'd like to become extremely strong and bulky, especially in my case.

See my lifetime workout history here: https://killyourinnerloser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=27844#p27844

December 2021-February 2022: sporadic irregular workouts
February 2022-March 2022: personal trainer (stopped because I moved cities) https://killyourinnerloser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=29081#p29081
April 2022-July 2022: roids start💉, gym 4x a week, boxing 2x a week, bulking at 2300-2800 calories a day https://killyourinnerloser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=32059#p32059
July 2022-August 2022: gym 4x a week, boxing 2x a week, cutting at 1650 calories a day, 150g of protein, 120g+ carbs https://killyourinnerloser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=39730#p39730
September 2022: gym 4x a week, boxing 2x a week, bulking at bw*18 calories a day https://killyourinnerloser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=41866#p41866

Starting weight: 142.4lbs
 
From the perspective of a guy same size as you : DONT DO IT, you will just end up fat with big arms and a big belly.

I went up to 70 kg last years, yes I had big arms, but I also had to suck my belly in when wearing thighs t shirts. I don’t want you to feel that.

Also now that I’m down to 61kg, I look more muscular than being 70kg. I get more compliments on my arms than I ever did. In fact nobody’s care what’s are your measurements, or how much you lift, go to a more reasonable 2200kcal diet full of protein and good fats

Hugo
 
ovnidos said:
From the perspective of a guy same size as you : DONT DO IT, you will just end up fat with big arms and a big belly.

I went up to 70 kg last years, yes I had big arms, but I also had to suck my belly in when wearing thighs t shirts. I don’t want you to feel that.

Also now that I’m down to 61kg, I look more muscular than being 70kg. I get more compliments on my arms than I ever did. In fact nobody’s care what’s are your measurements, or how much you lift, go to a more reasonable 2200kcal diet full of protein and good fats

Hugo

Thanks for the feedback. More specifically, how would you recommend calculating daily macros and calories per day? You saying I can look bulked and muscular at 2200 kcal would be great for me because I hate eating 3000 a day. I think if I don't track my calories, I typically eat like 1500 kcal a day haha.
 
colgate said:
I typically eat like 1500 kcal a day haha.

We’re exactly the same built then lmao

When I’m very serious, I track my weight everyday, input it in excel or Google sheet, then do the average week to week. You should be gaining about 0,5% to 1,5% of your weight every week while bulking. If it’s above you’re getting fats and muscles. Losing fat isn’t that easy, because when your at the end of a “like” me, it take some fucking discipline to undergo from “fit physic” to lean like Andy in is tinder pics

Hugo
 
ovnidos said:
Losing fat isn’t that easy, because when your at the end of a “like” me, it take some fucking discipline to undergo from “fit physic” to lean like Andy in is tinder pics

Hugo

This is going to sound strange but I actually like when I have to cut and lose fat.

The less I'm required to eat. the better. And I can restrict myself from many foods. My reference for this is earlier this year I tried keto for 4 months and I actually enjoyed it. Went from probably 140lbs no six pack to 128lbs hyper defined abs. I actually think at that point I was somewhere close to a scaled down version of Andy.

But at my height, that's not necessarily good. Now I'm 142 and I still have abs and I'm probably still <15% body fat now, but with a bigger chest+biceps because I got back into lifting over the summer and had a bulk diet, so I just want to keep going, But you're probably right that 3000 is too much. I'll try 2500 for a while and see (because I spend many hours a day walking around approaching, i think i burn probably 200-400 kcal just from that).

Yeah, of course I can lose fat but my bigger priority seems like it should be looking big and muscular. I think your body is close to what I'd want myself.
 
ovnidos

This is what I look like right now btw. I tried to emulate your profile picture.

 
Try to stay at the same bf% and you will get muscles fairly quickly, if you want to trainings tips or a program just ask me I'll do it with pleasure bro
 
Wednesday 12/29
Weight: 142.2lbs
Calories: 1907
Protein: 104g
Carb: 177g
Fat: 90g

Bench Press 115 - 12/12/8/6/6
Incline DB Press 30 - 12/12/10/8
Chest Flys 20 - 12/12/10/4
Chest Machine 60 - 8/6
 
I agree with ovnidos. Clean bulk is the way to go. You actually only need a small amount of calorie surplus (maybe 150 calories a day) for optimum muscle growth:

https://youtu.be/T1hIOWszx90?t=207

Can you post your workout? Are you doing any forearm or neck-specific training? Those are always good to add in, though your forearms look good already.

The last thing to keep in mind, because I went through this realization myself lately, is that time under tension is the single biggest factor in muscular hypertrophy (other than going to failure or as close to failure as possible). I found that I was being lazy and cheating the weight up sometimes, which only helps the ego. Now I do very strict reps, 4 seconds down, 4 seconds up, like this:

https://youtu.be/a7r6bWgzWoI
 
For your PP(L) you can follow exactly these videos I think :

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp4G6oBUcv8x4Z0h8Fd40t--bGSwZjusI

Just add Neck, Abs, and Forearms
 
I'm going to watch the videos you posted above pancakemouse and ovnidos and maybe modify my workout accordingly.

Typically I put the weight at whatever I can comfortably do for 12 reps (so maybe I could do 16ish reps). Then for the rest of the sets I try to go to failure (it usually happens before 12 on the subsequent sets). At failure, I try to do a bunch of "mini-reps" until I can't do the mini-reps either. I do 3 sets with 90 second breaks, but if I feel I didn't get enough reps, I'll do extra sets and maybe drop the weight as well.

I posted my push workout yesterday, my pull workout would be pull-ups, DB rows, curls, and cable rows.

Thursday 12/30
Calories: 2160
Protein: 200g
Carbs: 126g
Fat: 99g

Pull-ups - 12/8/5/3/3/2/1/1
DB Rows 40 - 12L/12R/12L/10R/10L/8R
I was going to continue my workout but I felt like puking for some reason. I've never felt like this before. I sat down for 5-10 mins and the feeling didn't wane, so I went to the toilet and came close to puking a few times but didn't. Decided to just go home after this.
 
colgate said:
@ovnidos

This is what I look like right now btw.

IMG_20211229_191057__01.jpg

I assume you're flexing?
Probably above 15%, you've got a pretty normal amount of muscle but it doesn't show that well. Can you post pics flexing and not flexing?

I agree with ovnidos, a bulk is almost never the solution to looking better. Even a "lean bulk" is REALLY hard to pull off. If you JUST want to look big for some reason (i.e. NOT aiming to get laid, just trying to get a job as a bouncer or something) that's really the only time.

I'd agree to get BACK to your "resting" body fat % (i.e. eat normally for a couple weeks) and just hit the gym hard and gain muscle at the same body fat.
If you want to look "yoked" or whatever else, the best way isn't really isolation neck exercises until you've plateaued on the big compound lifts (deadlift (and or my personal favorite, farmer's walk, AWESOME for delts/neck)). I wouldn't even aim for a 1% weight increase per week, that's closer to first-cycle-on-gear level gains (at your current weight, that would be a ridiculous 14 lb of pure muscle in just 10 weeks). Unless you were bigger before (muscle memory) or going on gear or TRT that's just not going to happen. Spreading that much weight gain out over a YEAR would be more reasonable.

If you actually prefer cutting that is *awesome* for you, it doesn't take NEARLY as much work to keep muscle around than it does to keep a low body fat, for most people.

colgate said:
Yeah, of course I can lose fat but my bigger priority seems like it should be looking big and muscular. I think your body is close to what I'd want myself.

You'll have more visible muscle when you're lower fat than if you're just big (a guy who's 130lb and shredded will look MORE muscle-y than a 140lb guy who's got five more pounds of fat and five more of muscle). Your face, and everything else, also looks better as you drop fat. Being low fat is WAY more important to how you look than being big and muscley:
https://killyourinnerloser.com/why-losing-fat-matters-above-all-else/
https://www.goodlookingloser.com/la...fat-can-help-your-sex-appeal-with-40-pictures
 
colgate said:
NotYourAverageNerd said:
Can you post pics flexing and not flexing?

Relaxed, no flexing
IMG_20211231_153510.jpg

Tensed, flexing
IMG_20211231_153516.jpg

Little hard to tell with your positioning (easier if we can see your waist and you're further from the camera so there's less distortion), but yeah, I'd still say over 15%, probably closer to 17%. Keep in mind people almost always under-estimate their bodyfat %
Keep in mind that (depending on what stats you believe), actually being at 15% bodyfat would put you in the top 5~15% of the population within the 18-24 age range. If you pick 10 random guys around your age, are you really leaner than all of them?

If this is you "bulked" then you've probably got pretty good genetics to keep yourself lean. Play to your strengths - I'd aim to maintain as much muscle as possible and (slowly) push back down to like 130, and just bust ass in the gym. Muscle comes on WAY WAY slower than it seems like it should, to get enough muscle to be lean and "big" while bulking would take getting and staying fat for several years, you're just not going to put on huge amounts of size in a reasonable amount of time, and you'll be less attractive in the mean time. Staying pretty lean won't slow down muscle growth all that much (long as you're not cutting hard) but you will look a little BETTER every day, rather than looking worse every day while you very slowly wait to build muscle, then WAY better all at once when you cut.
There's a reason Andy recommends getting to a good body fat % first, THEN make slow progress from there.

How long have you been lifting (and generally what exercises, machines, compound, isolation)?
 
NotYourAverageNerd said:
Little hard to tell with your positioning (easier if we can see your waist and you're further from the camera so there's less distortion), but yeah, I'd still say over 15%, probably closer to 17%. Keep in mind people almost always under-estimate their bodyfat %
Can you send me a picture to emulate? I think it will be easier for me to take a picture that's easy to assess that way.

NotYourAverageNerd said:
If this is you "bulked" then you've probably got pretty good genetics to keep yourself lean. Play to your strengths - I'd aim to maintain as much muscle as possible and (slowly) push back down to like 130, and just bust ass in the gym.
I don't really know if this is me bulked or lean. As I said earlier I leaned down to 128lbs earlier this year doing keto for about 4 months. That was just for fun. But I felt like I was being treated like a kid again or something because being that thin and also short doesn't really help me.
Maybe if you have some examples of guys who are 5'5" and 130lbs who look good (to girls), I'll have more of a reference to go off of. But I think I'd like to be a slightly scaled down version of someone like Master. At least if I have a strong base, I can cut down from there, but I don't even think I'm at that point yet. I think my main compound lifts are squat 255lbs, bench 180lbs, deadlift 335lbs.
 
colgate said:
Play to your strengths -

If you seriously mean that I should do something like focus on reducing body fat through my diet rather than "bulking", I would love to do that. I guess the reason I went all the way down to 128lbs from 140 when I did keto was because I didn't go to the gym (only did cardio and some calisthenics).
 
Hey bro, last example of why you shouldn't go on a crazy high surplus :
At which weight you think you're gonna look the most muscular ?
At 70kg i just looked like a big baby
 
Friday 12/31
Calories: 2234
Protein: 104g
Carb: 220g
Fat: 105g
 
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