http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x25/jeffhixon/Main.jpg I'll post up some competition photos and magazine photos later. I set a junior world record in the bench with 432lbs at 164lb bodyweight. Squat and dead are over 500 lbs. If I can help you guys meet your goals, let me know. I don't check this subforum much, so PM me if I'm unresponsive.
You look fantastic. I'm genuinely surprised at the weight figures that you quoted for someone your size. Very, very impressive.
Thanks for the compliment. If I focus on business like I did on my body, maybe I'll get a Ferrari. Junior 1rst place overall, ANBC Pittsburg 1998
Holy crap, nice work man. Do you even eat?? I'm trying to get my abs going like that but I just can't seem to get there.
Good place to start: You can do crunches til the sun comes up but heavy squats, deads, cleans, etc, (with proper form) will work your core more than you might think. I can't guarantee you'll look like the OP, but I know from personal experience that my stomach muscles are usually crazy sore after a healthy squat or dead workout.
Eating a lot throughout the day is good. Just don't eat many carbs. And only eat complex carbs. You can cheat a couple of times a week, but mostly follow a strict low carb/high protein diet. Diet is the key. Low carbs (< 150 grams/day) You bring up a good point. Middle body strength is essential for squating and deadlifting heavy. I actually didn't train my abbs too much for body building as I didn't want them to get too big (a small waist makes the rest of the body look more muscular). If you guys get your bodyfat <10%, you'll see abbs. I'm <5% in those pics.
Here's a PM that I got and thought that someone may find helpfull here. Not a terrible all around 3 day routine. You won't win any competitions with that, but if you only have three days to lift, it's not bad. Your workouts should go from compound movements (more than one joint) to simple (one joint). Pay attention to your sets and reps. You should go heavier on most exercises each week until your reps get below 3. Then lighten up the following week and keep getting heavier again. Keep striving to get stronger and not use the same weight and reps all of the time. Getting big means going heavy and light. But go heavy first, then light. If you go light first, then you're too tired to go heavy. Make sense? You want to stimulate your muscles to grow, and you can do that two ways: 1.) going heavy and putting max tension on all of the muscle fibers causing micro damage. (good) 2.) going light and fatiging or depleting the energy in the muscles. Both are good. Just go heavy early in your workout while you have energy, then go light and go for the burn. And when you go heavy at the begining of your workout, go balls heavy. Don't warm up too much or you'll be tired. Warm up just enough to know that your not going to get hurt. Cardio was not too important for me, and most everyone I ever trained with. But I did do cardio because I wanted to be the best I could be. I would swim in the morning before eating and walk a lot throughout the day. I tried to not get my heartrate up too high. Though I've found through experience that cardio is just not that important for me. What is important is lifting (corectly), diet, and posing everyday for a couple of months before a meet or shoot. Posing is as difficult as weightlifting. I would get so tired from posing I would want to pass out. As far as a routine, here goes. I was a hybrid lifter competing in both powerlifting and bodybuilding. My main routines were for powerlifting (squat, bench and dead), but I'd add in calves, bi's, back, and shoulder stuff for body building. Chest and arms: Heavy day 135 bench (1 or 2 sets of 10) very easy 225 bench (1 set of 6) [easy set as I could do 38 reps with 225, this is just a warm up] 315 bench (1 set of 3) [easy set as I could do 13 reps with 315, this is just a warm up] 365 bench (1 set of 8) this was my first work set where I went to failure 365 bench (1 set of 6) go to failure again 350 bench (1 set of 8) failure again 315 bench (1 set of ~10) failure dips with body weight (~10) very easy dips with 90 libs (~5 reps) easy, just warming up dips with 225 lbs (~3 reps) go to failure (this is how I got stupid big tris and a big bench. I'll post pics of my tris later) dips with 135 (~10 reps) go to failure dips with 135 (~10 reps) go to failure Incline dumbell 1 set 50x10 very easy 1 set 90x3 easy 1 set 120x5 go to failure 1 set 120x5 failure 1 set 100x8 failure 1 set 100x8 failure Then I would do some tri isolations like push downs and kick backs getting a tremendous pump and burn. It's not about the weight at this point. I'm exhausting the muscles. It's about the burn and pump. bi's dumbell curls with 50's x 5 (easy) dumbell curls with 70's x 4 failure dumbells 50 x 10 failure dumbells 50 x 10 failure bicep isolation exercises. This is for the pump and burn. Trying to get the nice high peak. Light weight and very strict movements trying to get the bi's to cramp. ******** You get the idea? That was my heavy chest and arms day. The other day that I do chest and arms would be lighter, but much of the same stuff. I would use giant rubber bands on the bench to work on bar speed and lock out strength. google 'westside barbell club'. Louie Simmons was one of my instructors. And Dr. Larry Miller too (he weighed 165 and benched 525) I did legs twice a week with the same strategy. And I got my back and shoulders twice a week as well. The point is, go heavy first. Then do isolation exercises and get the pump and burn. The other point is, don't miss workouts, ever. Ever. Many people make great progress over a few months and start missing workouts. Don't miss workouts. Just don't. One more point. Once you get strong and big after months and years of this, learn how to eat like a body builder. When you get lean, you can see all of those muscles, and that's rewarding. Hope this helps, Jeff
