Hey all! I was inspired to write this by the recent post on this subreddit of a guy who lifted for 3 years and now looks phenomenal!

So I have been working out consistently for almost 3 years now, with various levels of intensity, programs and knowledge. I look back at pictures of me from a year or two ago and it doesn't feel like I have made anywhere near as much progress as I should. I know I sound like a teenage girl writing this shit, but I want to see what you guys think because I'm having trouble seeing much progress after my first 1-1.5 years.

There are no leg progress pictures because I have actually seen a consistent improvement in my legs since I started; here they are now. Also, I'm sorry about my super creepy headlessness in some of the pictures!

June 2012 (20 y/o, 6'2", 185 lbs.): I started doing bodyweight stuff at home, 3x per week with 3 exercises (3x8-10) for two muscle groups. I had worked out for a few months in high school and at least knew the basics. I also ran a lot. Here are some pictures. I didn't have a consistent method of taking pictures at the time, so these are very minimal. In August 2012, I started weightlifting at the gym.

June 2013 (21 y/o, 6'2", 195 lbs.), Squat: 185, Bench: 145: By this point I had been weightlifting 3-4x per week (standard chest/triceps, back/biceps, legs/shoulders split) since August 2012 and making good gains and good physical progress. I kept my diet around my TDEE the entire time. I got pretty sick for one month or so and couldn't lift much, so I lost some progress there. I also hurt my shoulder so my shoulder progress began to slow down (it's still slow today). Here are some pictures, which include a back picture. I had a lot of trouble then taking back pictures.

June 2014 (22 y/o, 6'2", 210 lbs.), Squat: 275, Bench: 195, Deadlift: 295: I got to the gym 5 times per week almost every week. I did the same split until January '14 when I learned how to deadlift and then I started doing PHAT routine (I still do it and I still love it). Around December I posted with a throwaway in the Fitness subreddit because I wasn't progressing as much as I'd like. They suggested bulking and cutting, so I started bulking from January to June '14. My TDEE was ~3100, so I bulked around 3700 for 5 months and got nice and fat. Here are some pictures of me all bulked up. I'm still bad at back pictures. Here it really doesn't look like my arms or chest got much bigger in the last year, nor does it look like my torso got wider or thicker (from front to back). EDIT: This is as cut as I have been; this was in November 2014 after cutting from this bulk; I'm around 205 lbs. here and 12% body fat I believe.

March 2015 (23 y/o, 6'2", 220 lbs.), Squat: 325, Bench: 245, Deadlift: 435: This is at the end of my most recent bulk (at 3800 calories with TDEE of roughly 3200). I followed Layne Norton's "reverse dieting," and so I didn't get as fat which was nice. Here are some pictures. I don't know if it's because I finally got a girlfriend to take back pictures for me, or if it's because I deadlift a lot now, but I noticed my back looks pretty nice now. I still don't know if it's as large as it should be, but I am actually proud of how it looks. From the back my arms look a bit bigger, but from the front my arms still look fairly small. I still don't have that pec look that I want, where you are relaxed but your pecs are so fuckin' meaty/heavy that they just hang down a bit and look really good unflexed. That was a weird description, I know. I just assumed that after 3 years of lifting I'd have a nicer physique; it's tough to see so many dudes on Reddit posting their 1-2 year progress that looks better than my 3 year progress. I know I have worked out in silly and inefficient ways in the past, but I've been consistently going 5x per week for 1.5 years now and I still don't have the results I want.

TL;DR – My back and legs have improved quite a bit, but I still feel like my chest and arms have not progressed very much since that first 1-1.5 years of progress. My deadlift is going up nicely. My squat is going up slowly but I'm okay with it. My bench press is going up incredibly slowly, but I injured my shoulder (subacromial impingement) early into working out, so I'm assuming that's why.