You are still working all of your back - the lower back gets a little less - but still gets hit hard. The belt doesn't stop muscles from working but merely supports the back and core.

If your primary concern is your arms not appearing thick enough when resting there are a few reasons for this.

1. Overall arm size is 2/3 triceps and 1/3 biceps. Increase tricep size (especially the outer head) and you will get a larger appearance
2. Increase the pump in the arms - to do this, wrap up your workouts with a quick 2 failure sets of really slow curls and really slow cable pulldowns (on non-arms days) to force the blood pump to the muscle to fill them out. That plus the PWO carb surge will work wonders in the overall size and appearance of the arms.


Like anything else, having the "ideal" physique takes time and effort to achieve


edit:

I forgot to mention, you do have a pretty good physique from the pic you posted. Keep up the good work!

This post was edited by SKCRaynor on Dec 2 2011 02:28am

Out of curiosity, for someone with the goal of just getting bigger constantly, do you ever recommend any workout plans other than your 5x5 and hypertrophy plan? (ignoring, of course, beginner plans or injury-based work-around plans)

As you can probably tell by some of the questions I've asked, I'm trying to become a little more proficient in analysing fitness plans in general.

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Dec 2 2011 01:30pm

Oh and also, when you said "always do front barbell shrugs", what did you mean by that?

I was reading Burns's strength plan, and it included behind-the-back barbell shrugs. Maybe you could elaborate on the benefits or detriments of that. Googling doesn't help much since I just get random forum discussions which have no decent information.

Also (and I don't mean this to contest you, but to learn more from you): you say your 5x5 is designed to improve lifts every week. However, biceps start with two 8-12 rep range pump exercises, and then gets into the 5x5 barbell curls. Wouldn't it be better to start with the 5x5 barbell curls and then move into the 8-12 pump exercises, since it's strength-based training?

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Dec 2 2011 02:19pm

Generally, 5x5 or 3x5 as well as hypertrophy are the two best things an individual can use for mass and strength building. There are specific routines for specific goals and aspiring professional bodybuilders/powerlifters and athletes. However 99.9% of people fall into the 5x5 or hypertrophy categories.

Behind the back shrugs are not NEARLY as effective at building traps as front barbell shrugs. When you shrug to the read you are hitting a lot of rear delt, upper back, and only some of the trap. You can hit the rear delts and upper back on other exercises and don't need to be doing them with shrugs. Shrugs are for traps and to make yourself have gigantic traps requires front shrugs (or side DB shrugs) where you tilt your head back slightly and really throw those traps up and squeeze.

You are correct in the assumption to do the 5x5 olympic bar curls first. The 5x5 plan I made did not have everything in the specific order - I assumed everyone would know that 5x5 should always come before anything else. So for arms days, yes, start with 5x5 oly curls

I would need a training to gain some muscle that could be done 3-4-5 days depends if my gym is open at school full body and some REALLY HARD Upper Abs since i can get em to feel any difficulty at work

i didn't

on another topic, i asked about the bottles. certain places have glass bottles as an option (elgin, illinois for example), but florida is stuck with bpa plastic. sorry

If i'm trying to bulk while eating this and doing my workout, should i cut out my cardio days? And if i do what should i do on those days instead?

how's tofu raynor?

it is a soy product and i hear really bad things concerning soy. are there any merits to this?