Layne Norton's progression from age 15 until now(24)

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:17 AM

At the suggestion of CROWLER I have decided to start a thread showing my progression so you guys can see that it is possible to achieve a competition level physique starting out as a skinny ectomorph and it is possible to overcome weakpoints... even glaring weakpoints... even when people tell you that you'll never have the genetics to overcome them.

F*ck Genetics... not in my vocabularly :)

So here we go... started lifting at 15 at around 130 lbs

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:18 AM

here is me at 18... I had just started getting serious with my diet for about 5 months at this point... summer before my frosh year of undergrad school

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:19 AM

here is me the next summer at age 19 at 6 weeks out from my first show at around 180 lbs

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:21 AM

here is me at my first show in august of 2001 at age 19. I won the teen class and the men's novice tall weighing around 175 lbs... still to this day it was the greatest day of my competitive career... I don't know if anything will ever equal that feeling again, it was unbelievable

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:23 AM

here is me at 2 weeks out from my 2nd show at age 20, you can see the deficiency in my lower body very plainly here.

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:25 AM

here are pics of me from my second round of shows (summer '02 at age 20). I didn't do as well here, I weighed in way too heavy at 184-187 and didn't get nearly lean enough and again, my legs were severely deficient

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:29 AM

At age 20 I really hurt my neck bad playing rugby. I lost 40% of my strength on my right side from 2 bulging discs and one doc said I might never regain all my strength. Well I worked my ass off for the next 2 years and regained all my strength and MORE, much more and I began preparing for my next show in january of '04 at age 22 at 220 lbs... but as you can see legs were getting better but still lacking.

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:31 AM

pics of me at 5 weeks out during the same contest prep, as you can see... my legs improved alot during this time and i attribute it to working with extremely high volume & 2x/week leg training... and lots and lots of deep squats. I've never grown off of anything else.

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:33 AM

here are pics of my from my shows in summer of '04 at age 22 weighing around 188-190 lbs. I almost earned my natural pro card this year... but just missed it 2 contests in a row. After that i made it my mission to turn pro before age 25. For the next two years, I trained and dieted harder than I ever could have imagined possible... i was on a mission

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:37 AM

this is what the mission yielded. Drastically improved legs & back. I also wanted to make it a point of pride simply to get so shredded no one would outcondition me... as a result I started dieting around 35 weeks out from my first show. In retrospect I don't think i would go that long again... maybe 25 weeks, but I was ready early and it allowed me to ramp up my kcals going into the shows and come in full & shredded.

Here are pics of me from 11 weeks out from this past series of shows at age 24

**str8flexed** · 07-16-2006, 01:40 AM

now onto the contests photos from this year. I won my NGA & IFPA pro cards and competed at a weight of 193 lbs with fully striated glutes (another goal)

these shots here are from the 2006 OCB Great Lakes States where I won my IFPA pro card