The Body Shop Volume 2: Physique Evaluations by Dr Clay

TMuscle.com (or T-Nation as many of us know it)  just posted my latest installment in a (monthly, I think) series I’m doing called The Body Shop.

In these articles I thoroughly evaluate the physiques of few lucky TMuscle readers.  Plus I give them pointers on how to improve their physique to its maximum potential.

Here are a few excerpts from Body Shop Volume 2:

Sample of Tim’s evaluation:

“You already have a good physique, but you could have a great physique. So let me give you a few pointers that’ll help to bridge that gap.

Your clavicles (shoulders) are just a smidge on the narrow side. Therefore, it’s imperative that you build yourself a set of cannonball deltoids and prevent your upper traps from getting too big.

Right now your upper traps are perfect. So don’t let them get any bigger or they’ll make your shoulders appear even narrower. But you don’t want them to shrink either. The ancillary stimulation that they’ll receive from exercises like deadlifts will probably be all you need to maintain them, because upper traps are surprisingly resistant to atrophy.”

Now a bit from Liz’ evaluation:

“Although you possess the right foundation and already have some great muscular development, there are still some improvements you need

to make before Gina Aliotti and Nicole Wilkins Lee will start to get nervous.

Starting with your front relaxed pose, the main improvement you need to make is to fill in your upper chest under your clavicles. You want to have enough upper chest development such that there’s no significant dip under your collarbones. And at that point your collarbones will practically not even be noticeable.

You also need some middle chest development as well. I’m going to venture to guess that you’re not doing much chest work at all, and that will need to change. Make sure to check out my article called Building a Bodybuilder Chest, then focus on the parts about bringing up the middle and upper chest.

To begin to fix this problem sooner rather than later, I’d train chest twice per week while training most other body parts just once weekly.”

Lastly, here is a small portion of Josh’ evaluation:

“Two things come to mind that you can do that would improve both your glutes and hamstrings:

1) Make sure to do your stiff-legged deadlifts in a manner such that you’re squeezing your glutes as you approach the top position of the

movement.

2) Do a track workout at least once per week. A combination of sprints, plyometrics, and/or stair running will do absolute wonders for your entire lower body, especially your glutes hams and calves, all three of which you need to improve.

Let’s wrap up your assessment by examining your back.

Although your back is a bit on the thin side in terms of development, it still looks fantastic because your frame has such a great shape. Plus your back is, thus far, pretty evenly developed between your upper back and your lats.

Essentially, you just need more of the same. For that reason, making deadlifts and/or rack deadlifts a staple in your back routine would be a good choice, as would different pull-up variations.”

Now go check out the entire Body Shop Volume 2 article.

Yours in health & fitness,

Dr Clay

PS I’m considering offering a few physique evaluations like the full-length ones you’ll see in the article at TMuscle.com.  (This is especially beneficial to you competitive Bodybuilding and Figure competitors.)  However, due to the time it takes to do one, I can only do a couple here and there, so if you’re interested contact me and we will get back with you and let you know more about price and availability.