Hey-
A little about myself. I am a 23 year old senior at the University of Michigan. I started lifting in Nov. '06 because I was tired of being pushed around on the basketball court. I was 6'3 and 200 pounds when I started lifting. My original goal was to be around 210-213 pounds.

My ideal body type was that of Braylon Edwards whom plays for the Cleveland Browns. After lifting for a few months, I realized that I played way too much basketball and didn't eat enough to attain my original weight goals. I played anywhere from 10-15 hours per week. I dropped to about 194 lbs after 4 months of lifting although I was way stronger than I had ever been.

Fast forward to April'07. I decided that I was going to put all of my effort into walking onto the U. of Michigan basketball team. I had never tried out the previous years because I was either out of shape or felt that I wasn't good enough to make the team.

I told myself that I wasn't going to go through the rest of my life knowing that I never even made an effort to make the team. If I wasn't good enough to make the team, I wanted the coach to tell me that I wasn't good enough and not myself.

To make a long story well.. shorter, over the summer I would put in 4-5 hours a day while doing Joe Defranco's Westside for Skinny Bastards. I was extremely broke and although I ate the right foods, I wasn't eating enough and dropped down to 187 but like before, I was stronger than I had ever been.

School starts in Sep. and I am murdering everybody at the gym. Everybody is amazed at the improvement in my game and tells me that I have a good shot at walking on the team. And then it happens. Fast break, go up for lay up, knee twists and bam.. I'm done. Torn cartilage in my left knee. My basketball dreams are slashed in less than 2 seconds.

I like to think everything happens for a reason and although the situation is negative, maybe I can turn it into a positive. Currently I fluctuate from 190-192 pounds. My chest has always been my biggest weakness and I would like to improve on it while I can't play basketball.

I know that doing a lot of cardio takes away from muscle gains but I didn't care too much in the past as long as my basketball skills were improving.

Here is my info.

Age:23
Height: 6'2. I tell the ladies I'm 6'3.
Weight: 190-192 pounds.
Weight goal: 200 pounds.
Ideal body type: Gilbert Arenas for the Washington Wizards.

Bench: don't know. Bench pressing hurts my wrists so I don't really do it. Honestly, my 1 rep max right now would probably be 230. Told you my chest was weak.
The exercises I do for chest are weighted dips and incline or decline bench press with dumbbell weights. I can do about 3 sets of 7-8 with 70 lbs strapped onto the dip belt.

I obviously can't do Westside because it has a leg day. I wanted to try Chad Waterbury's total body training workout but that also has legs built into the workout. I'm asking all the T-Nation people to help me devise a workout that is upper body only that will help me obtain a stronger chest. I am including a couple pics so that you guys can see what areas I need to improve.

If you want to see some before pics you can look at my earlier posts asking if I had a six pack or not. I was such a newbie back in the day.

Thanks in advance for all your help. Let me know if you would like me to provide more information.

Here is another pic...

Sucks that you messed up your knees, you should have tried walking on earlier man, you never know what could have happened.
Idk about any workouts for chest besides bench which you cant do.Just strengthen your wrists and forarms then you shouldnt have a problem benching.

Can you hold dumbbells? Maybe try some variations of db bench and incline bench. Id say wait for some vets to come but you wont be able to do much without strong wrists.
Gl with whatever you decide to do.

Hey bro sorry to hear about the news regarding your knee. As far as routines go for building up the upper body I'd recommend building around the basics.

5-12 rep range, compound movements that hit all the major muscles. Exercises that have worked for me: pull ups, rows, any bench variation, dips, push ups, military press, and power cleans.

Your traps look solid, but the chest/back could be improved (seeing as how you want to gain upper body mass) As soon as you can, I'd incorporate squats and deads since they help build total body mass (not just legs). Take it one day at a time and let us know how things go. Hope it works out.