Thread: Is it okay to focus on the arms and shoulders initially? seriously skinny fat

Please do not kill me! I am starting out finally at the tender age of 32 ( where does life go???) having been very unconfident with my body for most of my life.

I am 194cm (6'3) tall with a very narrow frame on both the shoulders and on my body as a whole. I naturally seem to be slightly thicker on the waist/hips and overall is not very flattering at all. I also have proportionally very long arms (my span is around 6'5")....

My current weight is 186lbs (85kg) and it's skinny fat at best.... I have a serious predisposition to collecting the weight around the waist (currently 36" (91cm) and it's the hidden fat.

Now I understand fully that this is a long term investment but I have a real problem psychologically with how I look and I would like to know if it possible (and safe) to try and focus on my forearms, upper arms and shoulders first to build a bit of confidence. My wrist is under 7", foreams are 11" and upper arms is 12". I look like a stick and I would like to actually build up to even just a "normal" size first rather than going for things like squats. My legs are not big (20") but they are more proportional.

Along with this I need to improve my posture that is very hunched from years working on computers. I think I have very tight hip flexors which is causing a lot of tilt, my neck is slumped forward and my shoulders are very rounded.

So to summarise (apologies for waffling) what I am asking if it is possible to do (and if so the plan!) is:

1) Improve posture (I think everyone can agree with this)
2) Tailor diet to faciliate muscle growth whilst trying to drop this stubborn dangerous fat (my father had multiple heart attacks recently).
3) Focus training solely on hypertrophy (I have natural functional strength from my father that is fine, I can do easy reps of captains of crush 2), with a particular focus initally on forearms, arms and shoulders. If i could get my arms to even 14" and forearms to around 13" and broaden shoulder width by focusing on targeted exercise this would be great. Due to the long size of my arms I can imagine this taking a while to do or can I pour "newbie gains" into specific areas?
4) Once initial targets done then focus on the usual stronglifts routine to build up strong core strength?

IMO your plan won't get you to your goals and your goals are also somewhat conflicting, but you can definitely focus on whatever you want.

I just realised that my stats for arm size is me flexed.............rather than flaccid.

Thanks for the advise, perhaps I am being too hopeful with specific training. I just know with my body being so light of actual muscle, that I could see my 20lbs of noob muscle going somewhere useless like calves, thighs etc. I know it is vain but I really have a specific reason for this.

Originally Posted by bollixstain

I just realised that my stats for arm size is me flexed.............rather than flaccid.

Erect or flaccid doesn't change feedback.

Originally Posted by bollixstain

Thanks for the advise, perhaps I am being too hopeful with specific training. I just know with my body being so light of actual muscle, that I could see my 20lbs of noob muscle going somewhere useless like calves, thighs etc. I know it is vain but I really have a specific reason for this.

As I said, your reason(s) and the "this" aren't actually aligned. But good luck!