Skinny to Strong

I was thinking about what all these bulking and leaning phases have done to me. Am I improving physically? I am sure I am getting stronger just by looking at the weights that I have been lifting. But what about size? Did I grow at all? The body weight is not very accurate because it depends a lot on water retention and the muscle and fat numbers vary a bit depending on your state when you took your readings and measurements. So to answer the question about physical size improvements I refer to my body measurement logs. I take body measurements every month which allows me to look back at my gains. I typically measure chest, waist, hips, right and left biceps and right thigh. I improved in every measurement that I took. They are not huge improvements like they show on TV or internet, but they are good enough to keep me motivated. Here are the raw numbers at the end of last 2 leaning phases: September 2009 Chest: 32.5 in. Waist 27.25 in. Right Bicep: 12.125 in. Right thigh: 19.0 i...

After (almost) another 3 months it is time for some before and after pictures. I should really be waiting until the end of march to post the pictures, but because I am planning to start the bulking phase soon, I wanted to post the pictures when I am leanest. Date: 26 December 2009 - Weight: 126 lbs - Fat: 12.5% Date: 13 March 2010 - Weight: 122 lbs - Fat: 9.92% All the fat measurements are obtained using calipers and Jackson/Pollock 3 site measurements. I was able to dip just a bit below 10% body fat, but I lost a lot of weight. As I said in my previous blog I went on a work related training for 3 days. The training was intense, taking up the whole day and sometimes into the night. On the day I went on the trip I weighed 123.2 lbs and when I came back I was 121.8 lbs. I lost 1.4 lbs in 3 days! Unfortunately some of it is muscle too. More about it in my next post. Anyway looking at the after picture, I did make a good progress in bringing out the definitions. But now it is bac...

Another transformation picture session. In three months I gained a lot of weight and a lot of fat too. Sorry the after picture isn't clear. Date: 26 September 2009 - Weight: 117.5 lbs - Fat: 10.34% Date: 26 December 2009 - Weight: 126 lbs - Fat: 15% I see some changes. Not a lot. I gained some fat that is very visible in the after shot and some muscle too. I can still see the ab definition ever so slightly. Overall I am not very satisfied with the amount of change I see in 3 months. I hoped I would have more muscle and look a lot bigger. Oh well I have to remember that I am an ectomorph and every little helps.

Here is the transformation from February 2009 to September 2009. This is after I bulked up from March to end of May and then leaned from June to end of September. February 2009 September 2009 There are some changes that you can notice. During that period I could only gain 0.4 lb of muscle, but lost 3 lbs of fat. Since I took the second photo at my lowest body fat percentage of 10%, you can see very light ab definition in there. Very exciting! But now that I am bulking again the ab definition is slowly disappearing.