How am I coming along (for a 15 year-old)?

[EctoMark]

I've been working out 'properly' for about a year now and had played around with calisthenics for a while before that. I try my best to be well-informed with regards to effective training and dieting while continuing to strive to better my understanding of the human body. I regret that I haven't been able to work my legs or deadlift yet because I don't have the equipment to properly train them but I'm saving up for a power-rack and new weight set.

Anyway, on to the pictures:







The back and the side pictures were taken a few days ago after a two-week hiatus from weight lifting while the front shot is about four months old. I apologize for the quality of the photos; the 0.69-megapixel camera on my iPod appears to be somewhat lacking. I also haven't practised proper posing (say that three times, quickly!) so I'm probably not showing you all that there is to be seen. But I digress.

It's also important to note that my progress seems to have been inhibited by my lack of sleep and caloric-intake: I'm an insomniac and have ADHD. While the implications of the former are obvious, the later is significant because the medication I take daily for my ADHD has a nasty tendency to squash my otherwise insatiable appetite. I don't think that it helps that I'm clean-bulking, either (although there's no viable alternative for me).

If you would be as kind as to share your observations in the comments below (let me know the areas where I'm noticeably lacking and what I can do to remedy it) I'll take note of it (except for my abs...I can't tolerate ab-exercises). My goal is to 'put some meat on those bones' while building functional strength. I've been working in the 4-7 rep-range for all of my compounds so far but would like to move towards higher reps as my progress has been slowing down lately.

Thank you for your consideration!

-Mark

[ryan1996]

You look good man especially your chest, what to do you do for your chest? lower weights and more reps? And then for your arms the same?

[SamWatson87]

A power rack is probably the single best investment you can make for a home gym. Make sure you check Craigslist via SearchTempest daily, you'd be surprised what people will sell their **** for. You could also look into building your own rack, I built mine for less than $120 and it's solid as a rock. As for your physique: You have a fantastic starting base, you don't look like the typical "Skinny teenager". Just keep on doing what you're doing.

[EctoMark]

Hey guys, sorry for not getting back to you in a timely fashion! I forgot that I had made this thread!

My current profile picture shows what I've been up to in the past few weeks and I think it's a better indicator of where I'm at (and with a chest pump). I've increased the rep range I work my compounds in to 7-10 and the accessory isolation lifts to 8-12. This was done for several reasons and seems to be working as intended.

@Ryan: I'll inbox you in case you don't see my reply here. At the time that I took the pictures, I was dumbbell (chest) pressing and doing tricep dips (chest dips wreak havoc on my rotator-cuff) for 5-7 reps until failure and threw in a few quick sets of flys at the end for 8-10 reps. As for my arms, they get hit during compound lifts; my biceps have benefited from performing weighted Gironda chin-ups (5-7 reps) and neutral-grip dumbbell rows (5-7). I also do three quick sets of hammer or concentration curls at the end of the workout, just to induce a nice pump. It's noteworthy, however, to mention that I work in a slightly higher rep-range now.

@Sam: Thank you for the advice! I'm actually very fortunate as to have an uncle that wants to get rid of his old bench (which has an integrated power-rack, presumably for benching). It should come any day now...time to squat like a demon (I found a great tutorial on how to ATG squat properly)!

-Mark