Hello everyone, I’m new here and this is a long post. I hope you don’t get bored reading it.
My background:
I've been working out for 9 years but I didn't start with weight training. Before I started, I was really weak and unhealthy. There was a time when I ran for 1 minute and I was out of breath for more than 1 hour. I never thought that I would be that weak because I played sports (mostly ping-pong) in my entire high school years. And I also had a quite serious nose bleed problem. I thought to myself that I must do something for my health. Then I started with yoga, walking, fast walking, jogging, running and eventually weight training.

This is me 4 years ago. I had been a cardio bunny and I had been lifting like a moron for 2 years (no proper diet, no knowledge about lifting and muscle hypertrophy whatsoever) before I decided that I wanted to gain muscle. After that, I started to study about bodybuilding (a bit more) seriously.
I'm 5'6" (167cm).

62kg (137 lbs) I was even skinnier back when I watched Scott on MTV real world

There's no gym in my hometown so I had to workout at home. This is pretty much all I had.

6 months later (64.5kg, 142lbs)

I not only train for muscle hypertrophy, but I also train my endurance and flexibility. 1.5 years

This is me at the end of my last cut in Mar, 2013. I bulked up to 76kg (167 lbs) then cut to 67kg (147 lbs). I stopped cutting after I realized that I didn't have enough muscle mass. I was a little pissed at myself. I didn't even want to take progress pics haha but I had to force myself to. I took these pics after I just finished my cardio (running), had 2 small meals, drank 1.5ltr of water (not a good time to take pics I know but at that point, I didn't even care. I just wanted to get it done).

It may sound stupid but I really don't know how to flex.

67 kgs (147 lbs)

Another progress that doesn't show in the pics above is that I can run now! I've gone from someone who couldn't run for 1 minute to some someone who can run 10k any day, almost any time. I'm quite proud of myself.

I don’t have any recent progress pictures but I think I haven’t made much gain (if any at all) because I had a really bad year. I somehow injured my back in Mar, 2013 and it took me 8 months to recover. Right after that, when I was about to increase the intensity, I injured my right wrist in Dec, 2013. It was way worse than back injury. In the first week, I couldn’t even hold a water pitcher with my right hand. It’s still not fully recovered but it’s much better now. I hope it’ll heal up soon.

My goal right now is to concentrate on my lagging body parts (my back and chest). My back is obviously underdeveloped and my chest is lagging behind. My approach is to train them twice a week. I don’t know what to ask at this moment but I’m sure I’ll have a lot to ask soon because I’m changing up my routine (I have an access to gym now ). If you have any advices/suggestions/thoughts/critiques, feel free to leave it here. Don’t be too harsh though lol Or if you want to chat, I’m here to chat too

Wow - great work, Pook!  You've got really nice definition and it looks like you've paid attention to both your upper and lower body.

Holy Shit Damrong! You are Quadzilla! Unbelievable Leg genetics and an incredible transformation in such a short time. Plus you are gaining size while staying lean which we all know is hard to do. The good news is that with your lower body, you can make your upper body bigger and have great symmetry. The bad news is because of your lower body, you need to add some size to your upper body which you are going about the right way. You have the opposite situation of most people - big up top but have skinny legs :-)

Keep at it and your back and chest will fill in in no time.

John

thank yoou mross787

I try to train each body part equally. Obviously, I've made some mistakes but I'm fixing them.

thank you, John

I didn't stay lean all the time. I was a little chubby when I weighed 76-78kg. Honestly I'm a little worried if my legs will get too big. I want more definition on them but I don't want them to grow any bigger. The funny thing is I squat and lunge with light weight (100lbs) with high volume. I've never increased the weight for 3 years. I train my chest and back with heavier weight than I squat! I'm not sure if it's because of my genetics or my form. But I can't blame my genetics so I have to work on my back and chest a lot harder.

Dude you got some quads and calves. Look like speed skater legs. I agree with John need to concentrate on upper body to balance your physique. Some good advice I received was to do upper-bar deadlifts. It is easier on lower back and I can tell.

Looking at your back I would do more exercises to engage them and the lats. Backs grow pretty fast!!

Lay a little off the obliques. You look a little thicker in that area. Need bigger lats with tapered midriff to make upper torso pop out more and look more aestheticly balanced.

you are doing great!! Your flexibility is great which decreases chances of injuries within the connective tissue!

Good luck mate!

Wow man!

You'll really have to do more about upper body to catch more balance and symmetry. But impressive is also your flexibility ;)

Can you trust your secret for legs? To acheive such gains with 45kg must be 95% of genetics, but I'm still curious :)

Keep goin'!

BR, Gregor

thank you Hawk_Given for your advice. I didn't realize that my upper body was lagging until I took those pics. It was really hard for me to target my back using equipments I had at home but I have an access to gym now so I hope to make some good gains on my back this year :)

I do very little exercise on my obliques. I switch between 3 sets of oblique crunches and 3 sets of dumbbell side bends once a week. So I guess my only option is to get wider back?

I'm not sure what upper-bar deadlift is. Is it the same thing as trap bar? Anyway, my gym doesn't have trap bar.

thank you Gregor.

here's my lower body routine

glute kickbacks - 30reps(each leg) x 6sets - with ankle sandbag that weighs 1.35kgs (3 lbs)
hip thrust - 30reps x 5sets
barbell squat - 20reps x 5sets (45.5kgs (100lbs)) I've never tried atg squat. Honestly, I have fear that I might fall
lunges (alternating) 15reps(each leg) x 3sets (45.5kgs (100lbs))
calf raise 30reps x 5sets - with 19kgs (42lbs) dumbbell on each hand
Supine Straight Leg Hip Abduction 30 reps x 5sets - with ankle sandbag that weighs 1.35kgs (3 lbs) *not sure about the name of this exercise. check this link http://youtrain.me/exercise/supine-s...hip-adduction/

I've been using this routine for 3 years.

Makes sense as legs need volume more than the weight for the most part. Tom Platz used to do reps of 25 with 400 Lbs and he had the largest legs ever.

John

Germans, go home, here comes Thailand Volume Training :)

Impressive, especially you can also run 10k with easy. I don't really imagine how to run with so huge thighs but as I already said, your flexibility is also great.

Do you used high volume also for upper body? If not, why?

BR, Gregor

400lbs... not sure if that's high intensity or high volume. probably both

haha

Actually my biggest problem is my thighs rub together a little when I run or walk. So I have to be careful about what I wear when running.

I used high volume (mostly 15reps, 12reps for some exercises) for upper body too for several different reasons.

For biceps, I tried to increase the weight (just a small increment) and lower the volume and my form went downhill. Then I thought to myself, I'll wait a little longer until I'm stronger. And that was 2 years ago....

For triceps, I didn't want to increase the weight because I think they're more developed than my biceps. So I kinda let my triceps wait for my biceps.

For delts, I could target my delts better when using light weight.

For chest, I put all the plates that I had already. I was too afraid to buy more plates to put on because my bench was not that strong and I worked out alone. I didn't want to kill myself. lol

For abs, I didn't have equipment to do high intensity workout. The heaviest exercise was holding 10kg plate on my neck doing weighted crunches on a gym ball.

The reason that I did high volume for my legs is limited equipments too. I had to lift the barbell up from the floor (I didn't have a squat rack or power rack) and put it back down softly and safely without ruining the wood floor. 45kg was the heaviest weight that I could use without worring about failing or unintentionally dropping the weights on the floor.

Now, I'm changing up because I have an access to gym. I'm gonna slowly increase the intensity after my right wrist heals up (which would be probably about a month from now).

I want bigger and wider back, bigger chest and 16" arms (they're 14 3/4" in those pics). This is my goal for the next few years.

Definitely both and 400 Lbs to Tom Platz is like 225Lbs for us :-)

John

Been gone for a week. I can't find an illustration right off of the "High Bar Deadlift." Basically it is a deadlift without the weights touching the floor. You put extra bb plates or blocks on the floor to give some height for support of the bb with weights that you are going to deadlift with. Thus, not bending over completely really aids in taking pressure off the lower-back. I enjoy this way of doing dead lifts and so does my lower-back. Hope this makes since.

Hawk is referring to deadlifting from blocks or another alternative would be to perform rack pulls.

Deadlift from blocks:

Alternatively, the Rack Pull:

Both emphasize the glutes and hamstrings moreso than the complete leg and low back due to the fact that you start higher up in the deadlift motion - it would help with lockout stick-points during the normal deadlift or better glute development if that is your goal.