Show us your setups (keep comments in a separate thread!)

Looking for some advice from the gym veterans here. I’m trying to tone up and actually shape my body. Six months ago, I was sitting at 125 lbs, and now I’ve dropped to about 110 lbs. I’m about 5'4". My current routine is basically 30 minutes on the stepper followed by some light arm and back work using YouTube workouts—doing this maybe 4 or 5 times a week. I watch what I eat, but I’m not following any strict diet or anything. I hit 110 lbs and feel a bit more toned—hopefully you can tell from the photo. But here’s the issue: my proportions feel totally off. My lower body is much stronger and harder to shape, while I just seem to lose weight from my upper body. Any suggestions for specific exercises? I want to firm up, get back to around 115 lbs, lift my glutes, and balance everything out. Should I join a real gym, or maybe sign up for one of those women's boutique fitness classes with a trainer? Please be nice—I'm 40 with two kids.

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The photos are "before" (colorful swimsuit) and "after" (black)

It’s definitely not a massive transformation just yet, but this is honestly what happens after just one month of sticking to a solid meal plan and hitting my workouts at home...
http://prntscr.com/9x6x1j

I know I promised to drop some photos a while back, so I finally sat down and dug through my files to find a few decent ones for you guys 😵
Height 5'9", age 23-25, and weight used to swing anywhere from about 138 up to 175+ lbs

I don't really feel like getting all deep and philosophical about it, so here goes nothing.
Left side is how I looked last spring --- Right side is how I looked late last fall
Didn't do any real training aside from hitting the gym for the last three weeks; mostly just focused on what I was eating. There's about a 35 lb difference between these shots.

I figured you’d get a better sense of my actual frame if I showed you how I look in clothes or from a distance.

Summer 2014 I had some muscle, but honestly, it was mostly just a massive dirty bulk. That was my vibe for a long time.
New Year's 2016 Right at the end of my cut, probably the leanest I've ever been, right before I started hitting the weights harder and bumping up my calories again.

And just to give you the full picture, here are a few shots I took just now.
Front
Side
Back
And I don't want anyone thinking I'm being weirdly secretive about my legs, so here's one that's a bit embarrassing. My legs are definitely my weakest point and where I lack the most strength, but I've started focusing on them—it just takes time, you know?
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Anyway, that's the gist of it. This is really just the starting line for me when it comes to building serious strength and mass, but my first priority was just burning off the junk I put on from eating poorly, regardless of my gym sessions. To be honest though, I'm not thrilled with my body fat percentage, but there's no point in cutting even lower while looking like this XD
Also, sorry about the photo quality; this crappy old digital camera needs like a stadium floodlight just to catch anything halfway decent🙂

Legs are growing, can't even find pants that fit anymore. #humblebrag

He reached out to me a few months back. So, here’s a little update on how things are looking now:

Used this exact same setup two years ago. Thinking about running it back again for this one...

Alright, here I am again, back at it
So, current stats: I'm sitting at about 172 lbs at 6 feet tall. I did a bit of a light bulk, hit a plateau, and now I'm stuck in my head wondering if I should just keep pushing it—maybe aim for 187 lbs?—before I finally pivot to getting shredded for summer
The lighting in this photo is absolute trash, honestly, and don't even get me started on my phone's front camera... it’s basically useless

http://i67.tinypic.com/2eb8rog.jpg
😁
still

My lean mass is basically hitting zero at this point—I'm about to be a total beanpole—and this is what my back looks like right now 🤣🤣

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Sedentary lifestyle, bodyweight training, 45 years old, moderator of a forum dedicated to magic, mysticism, and Astrology 😁.....my physique isn't exactly peak performance because I refuse to give up my beer; you can barely see any abdominal definition unless the lighting hits me just right 🤣

That's me in a nutshell

http://s12.postimg.org/45j45gzm5/rec...223606_2_1.jpg

http://s11.postimg.org/gi2bsnwir/Scr...4_02_2_2_1.jpg

Right now, my abs and back are definitely my favorite parts! 😁
I still need to burn off that stubborn lower belly fat, though—which is going to be a huge battle if I don't get my sweet tooth under control! 🙂
Hopefully, I'll be checking back in soon with some real progress and maybe even some arm updates to show off!

Back in action 😁🙂

Down about 4 or 5 pounds—sitting at 128 lbs now

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I'm gonna be brave and post a progress shot



Honestly, I have no idea what to think about my physique right now and it’s driving me insane. I’m not happy, but I’m not miserable either. My whole game plan was 😁 to drop a few more pounds compared to my last update (check page 42), but that totally backfired because I actually gained 8 pounds instead😵

Right now I’m sitting at 189 lbs at 6'0". Whatever, I figure I'll look way better once I drop 10 or 15 pounds before summer hits

On the bright side, there are things I'm actually stoked about—specifically my strength and overall conditioning. I'm moving some heavy weight. I've got endurance, too. I can run long and fast. The other day, right after leg day, I hit a HIIT session where I started with a 6.2 miles decent pace on the treadmill and then just hammered out 30-41 sprints at full tilt for the next 6-4.4 miles 😁 (don't ask why, just wanted to see if I'd break)

Hey everyone 🙂
Just wanted to flex my progress a bit because honestly, the results after just two months of hitting it consistently are pretty wild 🎉🎉🎉
I haven't been obsessing over every single calorie or anything crazy with my diet.
I'm 5'7", and while I used to hover around 135 lbs, I've bumped up to about 143 lbs over the last year.
I’ve always stayed somewhat active, but I definitely let things slide this past year, which really showed in my glutes and legs.
I kicked things off on March 11th, so it's been about two months of this routine:

Glute and leg workouts 3-4 times a week, sometimes at home with dumbbells, sometimes hitting the local gym
Running 1-2 times a week, doing 5-4.4 miles mile sessions.

To be fair, 😉
I don't have any progress photos from when I started about six weeks ago (this is my first time ever actually lifting weights). My focus has been primarily on lower body training—since sitting at a desk all day combined with being less active during the winter months is a recipe for disaster.
I'm 32 years old, 5'11", and 152 lbs. I manage to hit the gym 2-3 times a week, though my schedule rarely allows for more than that.
I think I still need to drop about 6 or 7 lbs; in my opinion, hitting somewhere between 150-154 lbs would be my sweet spot.
At this point, I feel like I don't really need to focus on bulking up anymore.😬

Here are the arms and the back 😬

It is I once again, continuing my series regarding back health 😁

Hey everyone! I’ve been lurking here for a while, reading all your posts, so I figured it was finally time to actually jump in and contribute. I don't really have any old photos to show what I looked like before—I barely managed to dig these up—but here goes nothing. Before I started hitting the gym regularly, I was hovering around 130 lbs. Honestly? I was the definition of "skinny fat"—no curves anywhere, just flat. Then I started training consistently and eating *everything* in sight, which bumped me up to about 167 lbs. Yeah, okay, looking at the scale, that's definitely heavy for my height (5'7"), but I'm actually more confident now than I've ever been. The chest situation hasn't changed much, but my glutes and legs? Let's just say I finally have something to fill out my jeans. Since I've put on quite a bit of extra weight along the way, I started a calorie deficit about a week ago, and let me tell you, the cravings have been real. Sorry for the clothed shots; I'm still a little too self-conscious to strip down just yet, but I’m planning to post some new ones in a month or two with less clothing and hopefully some visible progress. Posting this mostly just to give myself a little kick in the pants...
The first two are from before the gym era...

Just a quick update on my leg progress. 😁

Since I shifted more toward isolation work—while still hitting cross-training 2 or 3 times a week—and really dialed in on Time Under Tension and that mind-muscle connection, the results have shown up pretty quickly.

The photo isn't anything special, but I have a profile picture on my Instagram that shows the progress much better.

I'm sitting at about 17-18% body fat right now (still in a lean bulk phase), which is solid. You can see the quad heads starting to pop, though they don't show up great in this shot.

I’m prepping for a trial run on stage this year, with the goal of officially competing next year, though I'm hoping I'll be ready to go this season too. 🍿