critique please....

[cdnpopeye]

I'm a little bigger and leaner as these pics are fairly old. I'll post the new ones asap. What % bf do ya think?? yahoo (http://briefcase.yahoo.com/rjito)
5'8"
198 pds

[Vito]

Your looking good. I'm not sure what your BF% is but I'll take a guess at around 12 to 15%. Just my uneducated guess.

[footpowder]

you look to be in excellent shape from that perspective. if you're bigger & leaner than those pics then you must be pretty ripped & ready for the beach. do you have goals beyond your current results?

[cdnpopeye]

yes , big goals for sure. i just recently started hitting the gym a few months ago coming off a year layoff. my nutrition got me all screwed up and i just needed a little break. i found this site and it seemed to give me the direction again. i must be getting serious i even started supplementing.......whats with that??? this is my natural build as ive never taken anything before. i want to give a serious effort to see what i can do......physically.

[cdnpopeye]

oh ya i also did the bf% test as posted here sometime ago and it came out to about 14.7%. sounds about right i was thinking anyways. right on the money vito....

[footpowder]

for want of stronger shoulders (old rotater cuff injury) i would be closer to your size... no layoffs here... just refining my routine & diet. job change brought about some scheduling challenges & an old weight machine giving out has forced me to rely on dumbells & curling bar which has been a thinly disguised blessing.

i'm trying to avoid supplements- i'd rather sink my spending money on iron; i'm slowly amassing a collection of solid dumbells ranging from 20-60lb (in 5-lb increments). if i can make the shoulder issues go away i may may a run at picking up another 20-30lbs of LBM but until then it's lighter weights & lotsa reps for me.

btw: it does not look like you've had a year off... musta been an intense few months back- eh?

[cdnpopeye]

i train pretty hard when i train and i eat as rightgeous as possible. i too had rotater cuff surgery 7 yrs ago when i was 21. ive always been very athletic so it was quite easy to overcome, the first 6-8 months were hell, however some excercises still bother. i love to superset and shock as much as possible and i still play hockey 3-5 times a week

[cdnpopeye]

im trying to get some new pics done, those pics are from nov 28/00 and july 28/01. i think im in better shape now.

[footpowder]

no shoulder surgery here... threw the arm out trying to throw past the cutoff man 20 yrs ago playing softbeer-- uh.. ball with the local fire dept. just got back to having a bit of a cannon a couple years ago throwing a football-- only if i do lotsa warming up. have played with weightlifting for the better part of 15 years & got serious a couple years ago... probably pulled everything into place so it could finally heal & allow me to throw again... though not completely without pain.

[cdnpopeye]

i thought it was a very uncommon injury when it happened to me but ive been learning that alot of people have suffered the injury. ballplayers are the usual victims and usually have alot of trouble later in life if they dont deal with it......surgically
SUCKS getting older.....booooooooooooooo

[cdnpopeye]

i think lifting helps..keeps things tight

[footpowder]

[ QUOTE ]
cdnpopeye said:
i think lifting helps..keeps things tight

[/ QUOTE ]

exactly. i'm convinced that if done properly, lifting helps some injuries from becoming chronic.