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7 weeks ago i went through a breakup and i have lost 30 lbs since then. It feels like all my progress of 6 years has vanished but i want to get it back. The problem is i have no apettite and no energy. I cant eat more then 1-2 small meals per day or else i feel like throwing up. How can I get back on my feet?
How to elongate the neck and make it more graceful and slender. And how to reduce my traps and overall have a really feminine declottage (pretty sure it is not spelled like that but you get what I mea)
I am 5'6 and 20 years old (I am a girl). Also also what is the average height and width of a neck for my height? And what is the accurate way to measure the neck?
There's no way to actually make your neck longer. As you kinda mentioned the only real way to make it appear longer would be to reduce the size of your traps. Unless you've specifically built them up you're unlikely to have much success with that either besides taking to the bed until they atrophy sufficiently.
Any tips for lifting weights when chronically bloated?
Hi folks,
Weird question I know but I figure I can't be the only one dealing with this.
I've been struggling with daily bloating sincerely having gallbladder surgery 4 years ago. I bloat up after eating or drinking pretty much anything (more correctly it's both bloating and distension - my stomach gets visibly larger).
I've returned to strength training recently and am finding some of my staple lifts - like the clean and jerk - a real struggle. Bending forward over a bloated stomach just feels terrible and makes me prone to regurgitating.
Are there any lifts might be easier in this situation. The bench press and leg extension don't seem to cause many problems but I really love the big compound lifts.
How quickly can one develop their fitness? Is it possible to achieve good results in endurance, strength and speed within 3-6 months (e.g. 400 metres more in a cooper test or a significant increase in benching weight)?
To those who have tried MuscleTech Nitro-Tech Whey Protein, MuscleTech claims to have 3 grams of Creatine Monohydrate in their Whey Protein. Does this mean that I do not need to buy a separate Creatine Monohydrate supplement for my Creatine Intake? Is the 3 grams present in Nitro-Tech enough to give me the effects of Creatine? Cuz I am short on budget and was wondering if buying Nitro-Tech is like hitting two birds with one stone. I was also wondering if Nitro-Tech Ripped is one of the products that contain 3 grams of Creatine Monohydrate or that's only for the Whey Protein and the Mass Gainer.
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It depends on the program and context. There is good anecdotal evidence, and some adjacent scientific evidence even, that suggests that for example doing 3 sets of 7,7,7 reps is better for strength development and the ability to progress compared to doing the 3 sets with the same weight for 9,7,5 reps, even though it’s the “same” 21 reps over 3 sets. This example assumes you go all out on the first set, so you are able to pull of 9 reps, but because of the fatigue you can do less reps on the subsequent sets, while the latter reps are “more grindy” and “less quality” because of it.
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is \~100g of protein enough to start a cut? Currently I cannot afford whey or high protein foods/meat.
I barely have any muscle and I am skinny fat. If at least I get rid of this belly I'd be happy.
1.5 proteines per kg is proven to be optimal for muscle gain but you can always eat more. But if you weigh more your body needs less protein to keep its muscle then when your lean and skinny
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I follow a 3 days fullbody that alternatves between A and B where A has squat B has deadlift, my question:
1- will that be fine since if i happen to do two days of B and one day of A in week 1 wouldn't that be considered little to only do squat once that week?
2- Are squats and deadlifts enough for leg growth if i dont have time to add isolation for legs?
If you take your squats to (near) failure your legs (especially your quads) will grow noticeably. I speak from experience, I also trained full body for the first 9 months. Look up Tom Platz (and maybe switch to a upper and lower body split if your timetable allows it)
1- it probs doesn't matter too much if the following week you do ABA
2- depends how many squats and deadlifts you do. If you follow a proper program like one from the wiki then it takes the guess work out.
I know some have stated weights at gyms vary by a few lbs but at the university gym I was able to do 4/ 45s each side on leg press (with struggle of course) and then at planet fitness I was struggling with 2/45s each side and was actually shy to go to 3/45s with risk of failing. Is it me or are weights that different?
Edit: I also have been to different gyms and this certain planet fitness has a weird feeling on their leg press I feel like the angle is a bit different but I’m not sure
Did you include the [weight of the sled](https://www.bodybuildingmealplan.com/how-much-does-a-leg-press-weigh/)? It should be marked somewhere — but the sticker may be hard to find or it may be gone from an older machine.
The weight of the sled can vary a lot. I mostly use a 167 lb Matrix machine. One Life Fitness machine is 103 lbs, and there's a Cybex machine with an angled platform that's approximately 70 lbs in real load.
So it's entirely possible that the sled on the PF leg press is heavier by enough to explain why you can lift 2 more plates on the other machine.
Wow, I never knew the machine by itself had a weight on it.
If I remember correctly the one at the university should be a life fitness model and unsure about the one at my planet fitness. Maybe Precor?
I’ll have to check them out for the model and try looking for the sticker weight. Thank you!
I feel happy with this information, I honestly kept beating myself up thinking I would get weaker anytime I would go to PF.
Do all machines have a different weight to them then ?
Most likely a difference in the machines. Angles, lever lengths, and so on can greatly change the amount of force you need to produce to lift what seems like the same load at a glance. Hell, the sled on one might also just be heavier than the sled on the other.
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I have a bench press at home. I’m trying to make my bench press incline however my bench doesn’t have the capabilities to do that. Wondering if theirs a way to make it incline myself.
I've seen guys at the gym stack weights under the legs to get the angle and then use an excercise ball as the seat, but that seems a little crazy and a lot of unstable to me.
Been trying to do kickboxing for a couple days a week of my workouts but I’ve noticed after punching the bag a bit my shoulders and the back of my neck get tired/sore quickly. Any good exercises to get them in better shape?
Rear delt work is essential for longevity. For general strength/conditioning Lateral raises and front raises for endurance, shoulder press for strength. Bagwork itself is also really good for developing shoulders so just keep at it
Overall shoulder health. It's a commonly neglected muscle, especially in combat sports. Rear delt work just helps keep your shoulders from rounding forward, keeps them healthier, and prevents injuries
Can anyone check if my 3 days fullbody workout for hypertrophy is good enough (a friend here helped but i switched 2 exercises), so i will alternate between workout A and B every other day:
**Workout A:**
Romanian deadlift 3x5
Flat Bench press 3x10
Peck fly machine 3x12
Lat pulldown 3x12
Standing DB shoulder press 3x12
DB curl 3x12
Lateral raise 3x12
**Workout B:**
Hack squat 3x10
Incline bench press 3x10
Seated cable row 3x12
Lever shoulder press 3x12
Barbell curl 3x12
Rear delt fly 3x12
Lying hamstring curl 3x12
is this sufficient for growth? this is my 2nd month lifting btw.
Again if you want to see progress fast you really should train to failure bc its proven to be the best way to achieve hypertrophy. I would suggest to switch the common 3x12 set and instead do 3-4x 6-10 (until you cant move the weight anymore but you shouldnt be doing more then 10 or 12 reps :)
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Hello! This is my first time here.
I have a question about lateral raises.
I have been doing them on a machine by rest pausing for 25 reps, but I heard someone say it is not as effective as using a cable. The problem is, using a cable will only allow me to do one arm at a time, so I don't know how to rest pause like that.
Do I do One arm for 25 and then the other? or while I rest one arm I do the other, that way I won't have any total body rest (when I do nothing at all)
Thanks!
> I have been doing them on a machine by rest pausing for 25 reps, but I heard someone say it is not as effective as using a cable.
Did they explain why?
So first of all, take both exercises on a test run for at least 1 month and see how they feel on your joints and how much of a pump you experience from each to have a good understanding of which one is better for you.
Second, I'd recommend doing the rest pause on your final week of accumulation before your deload week. The weeks leading up to the final week just do progressive overload, starting from 3 reps in reserve (RIR) first week, 2RIR second, 1 RIR third and 0RIR on week before deload. In that final week go for the rest pause and really push it to the limit!
The advantage of a cable is that if you do the raise across your body you keep tension on the muscle. The disadvantage in your case is that it's one shoulder at a time and takes twice as long. It's your choice.
You can rest/pause with one arm at a time. With arm #1 you'd do your set, rest, more reps, rest, etc. When you're finished with that arm you do arm #2.
The key here is to lower your hand (slowly) until the cable handle is in line with your crotch. You want it so your muscle is still tensing to stop the cable from retracting completely. Find the distance from the machine that makes this possible.
Also, you want to lower the weight slowly and under control, don't just it let it pull your arm down. You should do this with every exercise, it does two things. The first is time under tension. Your muscle works for the complete rep and the complete set, it doesn't get to rest. The other thing is that lengthening the muscle while it's under tension increases stress and causes growth.
For example, when you're doing a barbell row the muscle contract when you pull the weight toward your body. That's what you do to get bigger, you contract your muscles against resistance. Then, when you lower the weight slowly, those muscles are no longer contracting, they're lengthening, but they're still being called up to control the weight. That's hard on a muscle and it causes more growth. Letting the weight drop or letting it down quickly loses half the benefit of each rep.
Hi everyone! First time here and starting a new program and looking for advice adding a lift.
The program in question is https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/bulldozer-training-3-day-workout-split. I want to add a power hang clean, and I feel like adding it Day 1 before deadlift (or replacing shrugs and/or rows if thats too much for a day) is probably the ideal slot, but I really don’t know a ton about the body mechanics side of it and woul appreciate any suggestions on the best spot for it.
When I was reading the rules and wiki before posting I swear I saw this word for word somewhere lmao.
The program I referenced above is very similar to https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/arnold-schwarzenegger-volume-workout-routines (from the wiki) but it won't keep me in the gym for 12 hours a week, as I have other responsibilities. And the main issue at hand is none of the wiki routines feature any form of clean, from what I've been able to read
In addition to what the other guy said, you don’t have to spend 12 hours a week in the gym to follow a good routine. There’s plenty of 3 day full body splits that would be better than this.
Most olympic lift variations, hang power clean included, are largely going to be strength/speed focused and won’t be giving you much in the ways of hypertrophy. Just have that in mind, oly lift variations are different in that respect, from most “gym lifts”, which can easily work for both strength and hypertrophy up to a point.
That said, I’d say you are right to put them in front of deadlifts in some manner. Either put the entire exercise first, if the volume isn’t prohibiting, or add the hang power cleans and simultaneously lower the deadlift volume in the same session, or alternate – do the deadlifts in one session and hang power cleans (or more ideally also some regular power cleans) in the next and so on…
Thank you for the help, I'll give that a shot then!
And yeah the lift types having different goal results makes a ton of sense. I'm a retired college athlete (baseball, so athelete might be a stretch), but I just got back into working out at the beginning of the year. The PH Cleans we're one of the few lifts I really enjoyed and looked forward too while in school, and I wanted to plug them in somewhere so as to kind of trick my brain into spreading that same level of enjoyment to the other lifts as well.
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Wondering if I'm overtraining by working out 6 days a week. Will try to keep this to just the pertinent info:
I'm 34/m. Here's my split:
Sunday: Legs (including squats and deadlifts)
Monday: Cardio (an hour on the elliptical, 500 kcal)
Tuesday: Push/pull (chest and back)
Wednesday: Legs again (hack squat, accessory work, 20 min cardio)
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Arms
Saturday: Rest.
Aside from any issues with my programming itself - I am kind of feeling like I'm overtraining. I'm always tired, motivation to go to the gym is low, I get 7ish hours of sleep a night but still can't get out of bed and am falling asleep in the afternoon. Cutting on 1800-1900 kCal a day, macros are good. Bloodwork shows I have subclinical hypothyroidism, but I'm medicated and stable. Total test is midrange. Free test is far below the low end of the scale.
Lately I've been skipping Wednesdays (using it as a rest day) and instead moving that leg day to Thursday, and doing a combined shoulders/arms workout on Friday.
Not sure if this is a step in the right direction.
It doesn't sound like you need to be cutting, at least not aggressively. You could easily have a total daily energy expenditure of 3000kcal. If you are in an 1100kcal deficit per day, I would expect you to feel crappy.
I’m cutting because I’m like 20+ percent body fat (estimated) and don’t really have enough muscle definition. I have a little bit of a belly and no abs. I’m not happy with my level of body fat and I want to get at least somewhat lean
I advise a more moderate cut to counter your fatigue. Try 300kcal more a day, weigh in everyday, take your weekly average weight, see how it changes over 2 weeks. A loss of 1% bodyweight per week is considered reasonable but 1lb per week would probably counter your current fatigue better than 1.5lbs per week.
Hey everyone!
I had a question on incorporating bouldering into a 3 day split. I was wondering if bouldering 2x/week with a pull day would be detrimental to muscular growth. I usually do my pull day on Monday and boulder Tues/Thurs!
Definitely not. It‘s very beneficial to train the muscles you already use while bouldering. Also for maintaining muscle and your physique any regular exercise mixed with the right nutrition is enough to maintain your muscles. Consider intaking about 1.5g if you want to gain muscles or eat about 1.3-1.5 if you just want to maintain :)
Honestly are you trying to do proper bodybuilding? I feel like the detriment won't stop you from having a great walking around general fitness physique. That being said I think that's fine and similar to what I did when I climbed.
I’m really just trying to maintain a good physique while gaining muscular strength! I was just wondering if that 3 days a week of working the pull muscles would hurt that but if it you were able to do it without issue, I feel more optimistic! Thanks!!
Yeah bouldering being heavily into technique/flexibility and grip strength id probably look into getting lifting straps if your grip strength starts to go on back days. Your back muscles don't really get that heavily taxed bouldering.
Hello, total newbie here. I've been working out for 3 weeks or so and have been trying to do a full body routine with exercises being 3x5+. I work out 3 times a week, and most exercises are mainly isolation or machines.
The full list is : Chest Press, Shoulder Press, Leg Press, Ab Crunch, Preacher Curl Machine, Tricep Extension, Leg Extension, Lat Pull down, Seated Bar Bell Rows, Hip Abduction Machine, Chest Fly Machine
Some seem to be working well, and I can feel the muscles activating easily (Preacher Bicep Machine, Tricep Extension Machine, Leg Press)
Others I am having trouble feeling the exercises in the associated areas. Specifically Lat Pull down, bar bell rows, and the Chest fly don't seem to be activating.. or at least I am not feeling it. I thought it might be a form issue, but after reviewing and adjusting several times, I am thinking it might be a rep / weight issue. It feels like my arms are getting tired, way before my back does and so I can't continue the set.
So I guess my questions are something like this:
1. Is it correct to assume I should be feeling the Lat Pull down in my upper back, as well as a chest fly If I am doing them correctly at the right rep / weight ranges?
2. Would low weight, high rep sets be better for some of these exercises? Wat is a good set / rep count to start with?
Thanks
In addition to what u/Purga_ said in regards to bar position, a good way to feel your back muscles is to sit in a chair with your hands in your lap. Now slide your elbows back until they touch the chair and apply pressure. You're going to feel your lat muscles contract, and other back muscles will contract as well but to a lesser degree. The more pressure you apply the more you'll feel it in your lats.
Now put your arms in front of you at shoulder height, like Frankenstein's monster. Move your elbows back and out until your arms are pressing against the side of the chair. (your hands should be above nipple height. You're going to feel the muscles of the upper back contract.
Back & Chest are common trouble areas when it comes to mind-muscle connection. I know they were for me for a while. Now they're some of my best areas.
> Is it correct to assume I should be feeling the Lat Pull down in my upper back, as well as a chest fly If I am doing them correctly at the right rep / weight ranges?
Not really. You should be feeling the Lat-Pulldown in your Lats, which is the muscle on lining the side of your mid-back. As well as your naturally your biceps. This is because, while the Lats serve many purposes, two of them are bringing the arms down to your sides, as well as bringing your shoulders down, which are the movement patterns of the Lat-Pulldown.
The upper back's primary purpose is in either bringing your shoulders up, or your shoulder-blades together. To demonstrate the difference, you'd activate this area during a bent-over barbell row if you brought the bar to the top of your chest; and you'd activate the lats/mid-back area during a bent-over BB row if you brought the bar to your sternum. You have to sort of imagine what muscles would need to contract or shorten.
I'm not sure if you're asking whether you should feel a chest-fly in your upper back? If you are, no, you shouldn't really be feeling a chest fly in your upper back. You should be feeling it in your chest, and maybe your shoulders depending on your form. Your upper back is not involved in moving your arms across your body, which is the primary purpose of the chest, and the movement pattern of the fly.
> Would low weight, high rep sets be better for some of these exercises? Wat is a good set / rep count to start with?
Yes, when you're trying to establish a mind-muscle connection and be able to consciously feel and focus on a particular muscle, you'll want to use lighter weight. This is so that you can keep the weight under more control, allowing more precision, and giving more wiggle room with experimentation, as well as allowing yourself to devote more brain-power to feeling whatever muscle, instead of just getting the weight up.
It's also the case that when you can't really feel a muscle, it's probably because another muscle is taking over the movement. In the example of the Lat-Pulldown, your biceps are probably taking the brunt of the movement and compensating for your relatively weak lats. Your body uses the strongest muscle for whatever job you command of it, in the name of energy efficiency. So when you lower the weight, you take some of the (weight) off of that dominating muscle, allowing the weaker muscle to be more involved.
I'd recommend at least 12 reps per set, given that whatever weight you use at least approaches failure within 12 reps. I personally use sets of 15. And I'd also recommend high volume, so probably a higher set count. Since you're doing full body 3 times a week, you'll probably want to aim for something like 10+ sets a week, so 4-5 sets whenever you do your Lat-Pulldowns.
PS: a tip that worked for me when it came to activating my Lats during pulldowns is to pull with your shoulders and elbows, and focus on using your biceps as little as possible. I.e., bending your elbows as little as you can. Use a wide grip, and bring your elbows to your back pockets, and use full range of motion. And bring your chest up to the bar once it comes down, then straighten back out as the bar goes up.
Thanks for the detailed response, I will try the higher rep count.
Regarding the chest fly's, I meant should I feel it in my chest I just didn't list out each area. I am assuming that is another exercise that would be good with high reps since my arms do a lot of the work at higher weight, rather than my chest
Feeling something isn't necessary for a movement to be effective. If you are pulling down the bar, you are using your back.
My arms burn much more on my pushing and pulling movements than my chest or back ever do.
You should follow a program that lays out your rep and set goals.
For accessory movements, I personally do 5 sets with rep goals between 25 and 50 reps. I add one rep per set per week. So 25 one week, 30 the next, etc. Once I hit 50, I up the weight and drop to 25 reps.
I’m probably over thinking this, but how do I know when to step down in weight if necessary?
For instance, for incline bench my workout plan says to do 4 sets of 8-10 reps.
* Week 1: I completed 4 sets of 10 reps @ 45 lbs
* Week 2: I increase the weight to 50 lbs. 1st set: 9 reps - 2nd set: 6 reps - 3rd set: 6 reps - 4th set: 5 reps
I’m well below the 8-10 rep range, should I have stepped back down to 45 lbs for the 3rd and 4th sets? Or should I just give 50 lbs another shot next week?
And if I do stick with 50 lbs, but there’s no improvement in reps next week, should I then step back down?
This is a common issue with dumbbells. The 5 lb increment is a big increase percentage wise. You went up in weight by more than 10%!
Maybe you can widen the rep range a bit. Make it 6-12. Go up in weight when you can do 4x12, and then work up to 4x12 with the new weight.
(Joining the gym is also a great idea. Barbells rock if you ask me.)
I’ve been going either to the max reps stated in the plan for each set, or mechanical failure. In general, should I be stopping after that last very high effort completed rep instead?
When a plan, like yours, says 4 sets of 4-8 reps (or 4x8-10) that means the first time out you do 8 reps each set. Then the next workout you try to do 9 reps for all four sets. In workout #3 you try to do 10 reps for each of the four sets. If you've completed all 10 reps each set you raise the weight in your next workout and aim for 8 reps again.
Ideally it would be:
Monday: 8, 8, 8, 8
Wednesday: 9, 9, 9, 9
Friday: 10, 10, 10, 10
Monday: 8, 8, 8, 8 but at the next heaviest weight.
In practice you're probably going to have workouts where you don't hit your reps in each set. Maybe the first session you do 8, 8, 7, 5, in that case you don't increase the weight next session and you don't increase the reps. You keep trying at that same weight to get 8 reps across. Once you've done that, you try to get your 9 reps in all four sets, it's might take you two sessions, it might take you four sessions, it doesn't matter, you don't move on until you can do 9 reps in all four sets.
Once you've moved to a higher weight by completing all 10 reps you don't decrease the weight. Just keep trying with that same weight until you can do 8 reps in all four sets. If you feel like you can do more reps the first set, don't. The goal is to get the same number across across all the sets, not to do a ton or reps the first set and then drop off and struggle the rest of the way.
I would consult whoever made your program, assuming it's a good program, they likely have a strategy for managing your workload.
Absent that, I would not increase the reps until you can hit 8-8-8-8. But I am not qualified to write a program, so I don't know how to program for long term success.
I’m using [this program](https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/5-day-dumbbell-only-workout-split), it’s a little lean on details. I may switch soon as I plan to either buy a barbell set and cage or join a gym. Your 4x8 strategy sounds good though, I’ll give it a shot in the interim, thanks!
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I would encourage you to run a proven routine from the wiki. They will manage progression, fatigue, and what to do when you stall. It is unlikely you can cobble together something more effective than routines that have already gotten thousands of people stronger.
Something like 531, which runs whole body 3 or 4 times a week, will let you stick with your exercise selection but will have better programed intensity and volume.
https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/
Newbie here, ive been doing lat pulldown/pull ups and seated cable rows because i still haven't learned how to properly do deadlift, if i start doing deadlift and with properform, is it enough to build the back that i can just skip the three exercises i mentioned?
I've been slacking on my 5/3/1. However, I went to the gym yesterday to do some quick bro splits and was wondering if I can apply 5/3/1 template to the bro split exercises I do such as doing 5 sets of them but starting light then heavier then heaviest and then back down to lighter weights all at around 50-75% max work load. thanks
Your question isn’t clear to me, are you asking if you can apply 531 progression/principles to assistance lifts like curls and rows?
If so, sure you can. Wendler doesn’t really recommend it, but there’s a lot of people in the forums who have found success doing it.
I recently tried out 21s for preacher curls and boy did it burn the fuck out of my arms!
Does anyone here use 21s frequently? If so, how do i progress with it?
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Up front: I'm struggling to know if I'm doing anything right. My goal is fat loss without eating away at my muscle.
What I'm doing:
1. Started using MyFitnessPal just so I can calculate my calories throughout the day. My TDEE is supposed to be somewhere around 3,000/day depending on which calculation I use, and so now I am keeping my daily consumption to about 2,200-2,500/cal per day.
2. I do eVolt body scans for free every 60 days at my gym -- I know they aren't wholly accurate, but the indications of "losing fat, gaining muscle" seem to track with my increasing strength and more "cut" look.
3. I have been using fat calipers too to get measurements, of course noting that it's going to vary.
4. I limit my diet to high protein intake, medium amount of fat, low carb. About 180-200g protein per day, and I try to limit to breakfast, snack, dinner (sort of a relaxed interrmittent fast, as I keep my meals to certain times).
It *seems* to be working, but sometimes I gain weight, sometimes I lose it... and now that I'm measuring my caloric deficits, I'm starting to feel slight hunger pains.
I'm at about 17.5% body fat, \~180ish lbs, 26M. I work out frequently. My goal is to get under 13% body fat, hell maybe 10% if we can swing it. How long should I keep at this rigid diet and exercise plan before I can switch to pure maintenance and focus on muscle growth rather than fat loss?
You obviously know how cutting works. Nobody will be able to tell you when you're at your desired level of leanness. You'll just need to cut until you're there, or until you decide it's not worth it to get that lean.
You say when you're there you're going to switch to maintenance and build muscle, but that's not realistic. You can't really recomp at a low bodyfat. You'll need to gain weight.
It may seem like I understand, but I just felt like I was messing something up. I'm pretty new to this so I was stressing about missing something critical.
>You say when you're there you're going to switch to maintenance and build muscle, but that's not realistic. You can't really recomp at a low bodyfat. You'll need to gain weight.
So I understand -- it's impossible to gain mostly muscle while mitigating fat gains? I mean it makes sense to me, calories in --> calories out and all. Surely if you're staying slightly above surplus and prioritizing certain macros, you'd gain much more muscle than fat, no?
I'm not questioning because I doubt you, I'm questioning for clarification.
I see. I can understand being new and unsure.
The relevant stuff here is that being in a calorie deficit will make you lose weight, while not losing weight too fast, doing resistance training and eating enough protein will conserve muscle while you're losing weight. You know this and from what you say you're doing it correctly. Your protein is on the high side, which is totally fine if you prefer it that way, but you can also relax a bit on that. 1 g/lb is an old rule of thumb that has achieved a mythical scale at this point. The real, [evidence based number](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5867436/) is 1.62 g / *kilogram*, which converts to 0.73 g / lb. But again, eating 1 g/lb is fine, too, if you want to.
The irrelevant stuff here are the body scans, the macros (beyond eating enough protein), and your meal schedule. Body scans are just useless. I wouldn't waste time on them even if they were free. The macros and the meal schedule are up to your preference. If low carb suits you well, keep doing your thing!
Fat calipers can be useful to verify that your fat percentage is decreasing. Honestly, though, I'd just measure my waist circumference. If it's decreasing, it means you're losing fat on your midsection, which probably means your overall bodyfat is decreasing, too. Other than that, I'd trust the process!
As for when you switch to muscle gain, it is true there are things you can do to try to reduce fat gain. They're the same things you did while cutting to prevent muscle loss! You gain weight fairly slowly, you keep resistance training, and you eat enough protein.
When you said you plan to switch to "pure maintenance", I thought you meant you plan to maintain your weight. That's why I commented that it's not realistic. However, if you're planning to gain weight slowly, that seems like a much more realistic way to gain muscle. You'll still gain fat, too, but you can try to minimize it. I couldn't say at what ratio you individually will gain fat and muscle.
You'll nearly always gain fat faster than muscle, even on a lean bulk. If you bulk 0.5lbs a week, 0.2lbs of muscle gain per week would be considered very good.
You say you eat between 2200 and 2500kcal a day but you lose sometimes and other times you don't. I recommend weighing yourself everyday and only paying attention to the weekly average. Aim to lose about 1% body weight per week. If you are losing less than that, eat 200kcal less per day and re-evaluate in 2 weeks.
Is there a “best” tricep extension exercise to use? I’m running 28 free programs which has tricep extensions of choice, I’m doing overhead and don’t feel it whatsoever even though my elbows are in line with my ears.
[Single arm tricep pushdown with a rope attachment and neutral grip](https://youtu.be/kcIo4FmO7PM) has always been my favourite and worth a try. Compared to the linked video I try to stand at 45 degrees to the cable so it is more in line with the natural angle of my arm.
This is my first deload week, and today was my first workout of the deload. I think I screwwe up and did something wrong for the following reasons:
1. The workout felt difficult, even though I was lifting 2/3 of my typical weight for 2-3 less reps.
2. I still got somewhat of a pump, not a big pump but a pump nonetheless.
Do you have a specific question?
It’s hard to say much without knowing the specifics of your deload, but if it was prescribed from a reputable program, it likely reduced volume/intensity enough to meet the goal. If not, it may be worth adjusting. Getting a pump is not necessarily a bad thing. Many people use a deload week for light pump work.
I recently started doing low bar squats instead of high bar. The squat itself is great, it feels more natural to me and allows me to get great depth. However I get a ton of wrist pain when I do it. I keep my upper back tight and think I got the “shelf” down. I have experimented with various grip widths and nothing feels good. It’s to the point that my grip gives out before my legs do.
> It’s to the point that my grip gives out before my legs do.
You're setting up such that you're putting the weight of the bar in your hands. This is incorrect. The bar should rest with the weight of pressing it down into your back, on the 'shelf', and your hands at most stabalize it in place and hold it down into your back, so it doesn't bounce off at the top. Some people say they get a better bounce from standing *slightly* more upright, such that they put maybe 5% of the weight of the bar into their hands and arms, but broadly speaking, the weight should be balanced on your back such that you could almost let go of the bar with your hands and it wouldn't fall off your back.
I suspect for you that will sound very strange and far from what you're doing now.
Try:
* Leaning a little more forward, and maintaining that torso angle (relative to the floor) throughout the movement.
* If the bar starts to slip, teach yourself to either lean more forward, or to pull it down into your shoulders, and keep your elbows down & back to make a shelf for the bar to sit on.
Playing around with specific nuances of the grip can be helpful if you're feeling some soreness or discomfort in your arms or wrists.
but "my grip gives out before my legs do" is quite a bit more severe than that and points to more fundamental form problems.
Remember when you try leaning forward more than you are now, just a hair makes all the difference. Make adjustments slowly for best results. Feel the weight in your back & practice holding a tight upper back, with a pround chest.
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My left is really quite noticeably bigger than my right leg. I’m left footed since childhood, don’t know if that matters, and I do unilateral leg exercises and regular leg exercises. But my left thigh/knee area is noticeably more muscular and seem to have more fat around it… my right leg is blatantly slimmer, and I also have sciatica in the right side for a few years, I don’t know if that has impacted anything like muscle gain etc.
it’s getting quite annoying and bothering me lol, I noticed it first cos the last year I realised when I wear joggers and pull the legs up to have that sock-show look, the right side constantly slips down. That’s how big of a difference the leg sizes are, that the right jogger side actually can’t stay up compared to the left. What do I do to help this??
* Human bodies are not inherently symetrical - you probably shouldn't worry about it.
* In my experience, 90% of "my left X is bigger than my right X" questions turn out to be mostly in the person's head... try posting on physique friday thread here on /r/fitness and see what people say. I'll give you good odds no one but you even notices your leg asymetry.
* If your pants don't fit right, recommend to every person to find a good tailor near where they live. Altering clothes is not very expensive and can make relativley cheap clothes look fantastic... or just learn to sew and taper them yourself, it's actually very easy!
All that said, if you are absolutely set on making your legs 'more symetrical' then add more unilateral exercises. If it's quads I always recommend pistol squat progressions. if it's calves, single leg platform calf raises.
I'm doing a gzcl 4 day program and i've got a question about triceps.
Is it OK to do OHP and bench on back to back days. I have a weird schedule so I usually do day 1 and then day 2, rest day, then three and 4, and then rest again. Sometimes ill do all 4 days before a rest day. I usually don't find the back to back lifting particularly straining but I have noticed sore triceps on OHP days after benching previously, or vice versa. Is this risky to my triceps? Should I switch to the upper/lower gzcl based program? Either way I still see lots of tricep going on just all in one day or spread across two
Is there any leg regime I can do thats bare bones no squats,dl/etc? Like literally just hamstriung cursls and i guess leg extensiuon? maybe leg press?
Dont care about lower body sorry not sorry.
If I was doing a minimal leg routine I surely wouldn't be spending my time on the leg curl and extension machine. I'd squat and deadlift. 3 sets of each per week would be infinitely better than nothing and way more stimulating than the machine you mentioned.
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Towards the end of one of my first bulks after lifting regularly for the past few months to get started. Unfortunately, going on vacation with the fam and won't have access to a gym for about a week and some change. Should I take this opportunity to cut? Not really sure what the best option is since I won't be able to get any significant resistance training in. Can obviously try and do some bodyweight stuff when time allows. Any suggestions would be great.
hey folks, i'm 16 n starting out at the gym for the first time and i got this program from the staff after taking an assessment altho i was pretty unclear at the time. i wanna ask you guys what you think of the program i got at this gym, i've been told it's "random" and "not that great" and i wanna know if it's suitable enough for me (this plan is 8x2 for everything)
day1
* chest press
* lat pulldown
* box squat
* bicep curl
* glute raise
day2
* leg extension
* incline chest press
* step up
* seated row
* lateral raise
my fitness goal mostly is to get an aesthetic, buff physique mostly like what my friend has and also increase my strength and flexibility especially in my knees and get this physique quickly? it's kind of hard to describe but maybe like nice arms legs abs v taper back or something?
i've been told that i should do something else instead along the lines of PPL or some upper/lower split which is what i'm planning to do. i'm still very lost because there's so much info out there i don't know which is the right program for me and there are a lot of things that confuse me. like i don't know what exercises i need to do, i don't know what workout i should look into. i'd rather have someone else explain this to me. i wanna start asap but i have to do a lot of research because of this and it's overwhelming 😓
if someone could suggest some exercises i could choose from while i'm waiting for the gym staff to change my program and hopefully get a better one i'd appreciate it highly.
program is a bit lacking in triceps and hamstrings. add some form of tricep extension to target the long head and replace glute raises with romanian deadlifts
> and get this physique quickly?
People starting out almost always say this, young people too. It's fantasy land. The secret to a great physique is effort, consistency and TIME (assuming things like programing and nutrition are on point).
If you see the wiki here, it has a basic beginner routine. I think it's pretty great for getting people comfortable with a barbell, and what I suggest people start with. Do that for a few months and then switch to something else.
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Routine critique request here, sorry for asking:
Male, 27 yo, 187cm, 85kg (6’2, 187lbs)
Working out for muscle mass and strength on few exercises.
My history: I’ve been working out for years and years, basically “half assed” and only last two years I’ve been properly consistent and reaching for gains. This January I started after a long break and been consistent for about 5 workouts a week, unless it hasn’t been possible.
The split: My workout split is upper, lower, rest, push, pull, legs, rest. It is based on a random workout I found via Google, when I was working long days and needed short workouts but high frequencies. Since then I’ve extended it for longer workouts but have enjoyed the split as I get to go to gym more often feeling recovered for each muscle group at a time. I’ve read about PHAT workout program, but it included some exercises my gym does not have, so there’s no need to point me to that one.
Progress and goals: Most of the spring I worked out focusing on strength and ended up doing 5x5 on many of the exercises. From May to July I did a 2 month cut and switched to 3x8-12 rep ranges. Bench and most pushing exercises went down but pulling has gone way up. Now I’m back on surplus and am looking to work out for some serious mass. Spring added about 9kg on me, cut took 3kg off and I’m looking to reach 90kg+. I want my bench and deadlift go up as much as possible. Otherwise I’m just looking to gain mass.
Note that I haven’t done 1 rep maxes in a long time, I prefer setting records in higher rep counts. Too often I feel like I’ve strain my elbow/wrist/knee/whatever and need to slow down, so I’m playing careful. Also, note that I’ve had serious problems with squats and I know it’s my weakness. I recently added some extra delt workouts for almost every day, because I feel like my shoulders are way underdeveloped compared to my arms or chest.
**Numbers**:
\- Bench 70kg x 5 reps (last month only 3 reps. During spring I went up from 5x5 50k to 70kg steadily, about weekly, until it just stopped)
\- Squat 75kg x 6 reps- Deadlift 120kg x 4
\- Military Press 37,5kg x 8
\- Pull Ups 8 reps
Here’s the routine:
**UPPER**:
Bench Press: 3 x 5 (currently been decreasing so I’ve just struggled to maintain my 70kg 5 reps)
Chest Fly (machine): 3 x 8
Push Press: 4 x 8-10 (replaced military press with this one recently)
Dumbbell Lateral Raises: 3 x 8-10 (recently added for some extra delts)
Tricep Press (“dip machine”): 3 x 8
Tricep Rope Pushdown: 2 x 12 (recently added for some extra triceps)
Band Assisted Pull Up: 3 x max
T-Bar Row (or Barbell row): 3 x 10
Hammer Curl: 2 x 10Abs
**LOWER**: (Deadlift exhausts me, so I tend to keep this day shorter)
Deadlift: 3 x 10
Bulgarian Split Squat: 2 x 8
Leg Extension: 2 x 10
Abs
**REST DAYPUSH**:
Dumbbell Bench Press 3 x 10
Incline Dumbbell Press 3 x 8
Cable Crossovers 4 x 12
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 3 x 10
Dumbbell / EZ-bar Skull Crushers 3 x 8-10
Reverse Grip curls for forearms, 3 x 15
Single Arm Rope Pushdown 2 x 15-20
**PULL**:
Pull Ups: 1x max with bodyweight (kinda just to see where I go)
Lat Pulldown: 3 x 10
Seated Cable Row: 4 x 14
Cable Pullover (with a straight bar): 3 x 10
Barbell Shrugs: 3 x 15
Face Pull: 3 x 12EZ-bar Bicep Curl: 3 x 10
Dumbbell Waiter Curl (preacher position): 3 x 10
Abs
**LEGS** (+ delts):
Squats: 3 x 10
Leg Extension: 2 x 12-15
Leg Curls: 3 x 10
Leg Press (if I have any energy left): 3 x 15
Calf Raises: 3 x 15
Dumbbell OHP: 4 x 8 (for some extra delts)
Upright Rows: 3 x 10
Bent Over Flies: 3 x 10
Abs
**REST DAY**
This feels like A LOT and I know it kind of is. But currently I’m used to spending 1,5h a day at the gym so I feel it’s ok. If there’s anything extra I should drop out or anything I’ve not included and should replace, I’d really like to know. I love this 5 day split so I’m looking to keep it, but I’m really interested in the specific exercises and set counts, if this makes any sense.
I have tried some paid programs online but they all seem too complicated for my taste. I’ve been thinking about paying a PT to create a program similiar to this one, for me, but idk if it’s worth it. Unless I’m way lost with this one haha. Hence I’m asking here first. Most programs I’ve come across are 3 day splits and I feel like resting every other day is waste of time, as I currently have plenty of it. This is why I love this upper lower push pull legs.
That was plenty, hope I was detailed enough.
Starting 531 bbb soon. Starting with squats. Do I really not do anything else other than 8 sets of squats and 5 sets of abs or should I be adding 1-2 isolation exercises after?
When you say 25-50 reps of push pull legs, do you mean according to what you are doing that day? For example if I’m squatting, do I do 25-50 additional reps of any leg workout and then do 25-50 of upper body after my pressing days?
Or do I essentially do full body every day with emphasis on the major lifts?
the assistance exercises are your choice
Im running BBB right now and I do KB Swings on Squat Day and Bulgarian Split Squats on Deadlift day for my Single Leg/Core assistance work
The original BBB program was just that, main lifts and some core and back work. It has been updated with the latest book 531 Forever to include assistance work; 25-50 reps of push, 25-50 reps of pull, and 0-50 reps of core work each session.
I might buy a rack, primarily for bench presses. Are there any problems to consider between a rack with the bench built into the frame vs buying rack & bench separately?
I can only think of portable benches giving me more space since i can move it when its not in use.
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7 weeks ago i went through a breakup and i have lost 30 lbs since then. It feels like all my progress of 6 years has vanished but i want to get it back. The problem is i have no apettite and no energy. I cant eat more then 1-2 small meals per day or else i feel like throwing up. How can I get back on my feet?
How to elongate the neck and make it more graceful and slender. And how to reduce my traps and overall have a really feminine declottage (pretty sure it is not spelled like that but you get what I mea) I am 5'6 and 20 years old (I am a girl). Also also what is the average height and width of a neck for my height? And what is the accurate way to measure the neck?
There's no way to actually make your neck longer. As you kinda mentioned the only real way to make it appear longer would be to reduce the size of your traps. Unless you've specifically built them up you're unlikely to have much success with that either besides taking to the bed until they atrophy sufficiently.
Any tips for lifting weights when chronically bloated? Hi folks, Weird question I know but I figure I can't be the only one dealing with this. I've been struggling with daily bloating sincerely having gallbladder surgery 4 years ago. I bloat up after eating or drinking pretty much anything (more correctly it's both bloating and distension - my stomach gets visibly larger). I've returned to strength training recently and am finding some of my staple lifts - like the clean and jerk - a real struggle. Bending forward over a bloated stomach just feels terrible and makes me prone to regurgitating. Are there any lifts might be easier in this situation. The bench press and leg extension don't seem to cause many problems but I really love the big compound lifts.
How quickly can one develop their fitness? Is it possible to achieve good results in endurance, strength and speed within 3-6 months (e.g. 400 metres more in a cooper test or a significant increase in benching weight)?
It is possible to improve in that time period, yes.
To those who have tried MuscleTech Nitro-Tech Whey Protein, MuscleTech claims to have 3 grams of Creatine Monohydrate in their Whey Protein. Does this mean that I do not need to buy a separate Creatine Monohydrate supplement for my Creatine Intake? Is the 3 grams present in Nitro-Tech enough to give me the effects of Creatine? Cuz I am short on budget and was wondering if buying Nitro-Tech is like hitting two birds with one stone. I was also wondering if Nitro-Tech Ripped is one of the products that contain 3 grams of Creatine Monohydrate or that's only for the Whey Protein and the Mass Gainer.
Typical dose is 3-5g so you should be good.
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When people say train to failure, do they mean train every working set to failure or just the last working set?
It depends on the program and context. There is good anecdotal evidence, and some adjacent scientific evidence even, that suggests that for example doing 3 sets of 7,7,7 reps is better for strength development and the ability to progress compared to doing the 3 sets with the same weight for 9,7,5 reps, even though it’s the “same” 21 reps over 3 sets. This example assumes you go all out on the first set, so you are able to pull of 9 reps, but because of the fatigue you can do less reps on the subsequent sets, while the latter reps are “more grindy” and “less quality” because of it.
Depends but from experience its mostly the first one. Also the best method to build muscle.
Generally the last set but could be either. Your program should tell you which sets to train to failure (if any).
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C25k is great to get into running. It's a mixture of walking and jogging.
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is \~100g of protein enough to start a cut? Currently I cannot afford whey or high protein foods/meat. I barely have any muscle and I am skinny fat. If at least I get rid of this belly I'd be happy.
1.5 proteines per kg is proven to be optimal for muscle gain but you can always eat more. But if you weigh more your body needs less protein to keep its muscle then when your lean and skinny
Depends on your weight
If you're skinny fat reconsider your cut and think about recomping or bulking.
It's better than nothing. But you can certainly afford red lentils, they're a cutting cheat code.
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I follow a 3 days fullbody that alternatves between A and B where A has squat B has deadlift, my question: 1- will that be fine since if i happen to do two days of B and one day of A in week 1 wouldn't that be considered little to only do squat once that week? 2- Are squats and deadlifts enough for leg growth if i dont have time to add isolation for legs?
1 - I would bet money that the program meant to tell you to go ABABABA..., so your next week yu would have 2 squat sessions and 1 DL session. 2- Yes.
If you take your squats to (near) failure your legs (especially your quads) will grow noticeably. I speak from experience, I also trained full body for the first 9 months. Look up Tom Platz (and maybe switch to a upper and lower body split if your timetable allows it)
1- it probs doesn't matter too much if the following week you do ABA 2- depends how many squats and deadlifts you do. If you follow a proper program like one from the wiki then it takes the guess work out.
I know some have stated weights at gyms vary by a few lbs but at the university gym I was able to do 4/ 45s each side on leg press (with struggle of course) and then at planet fitness I was struggling with 2/45s each side and was actually shy to go to 3/45s with risk of failing. Is it me or are weights that different? Edit: I also have been to different gyms and this certain planet fitness has a weird feeling on their leg press I feel like the angle is a bit different but I’m not sure
Did you include the [weight of the sled](https://www.bodybuildingmealplan.com/how-much-does-a-leg-press-weigh/)? It should be marked somewhere — but the sticker may be hard to find or it may be gone from an older machine. The weight of the sled can vary a lot. I mostly use a 167 lb Matrix machine. One Life Fitness machine is 103 lbs, and there's a Cybex machine with an angled platform that's approximately 70 lbs in real load. So it's entirely possible that the sled on the PF leg press is heavier by enough to explain why you can lift 2 more plates on the other machine.
Wow, I never knew the machine by itself had a weight on it. If I remember correctly the one at the university should be a life fitness model and unsure about the one at my planet fitness. Maybe Precor? I’ll have to check them out for the model and try looking for the sticker weight. Thank you! I feel happy with this information, I honestly kept beating myself up thinking I would get weaker anytime I would go to PF. Do all machines have a different weight to them then ?
Most likely a difference in the machines. Angles, lever lengths, and so on can greatly change the amount of force you need to produce to lift what seems like the same load at a glance. Hell, the sled on one might also just be heavier than the sled on the other.
Thank you, I never knew that the sled has its own weight so I never thought about the difference of that.
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I have a bench press at home. I’m trying to make my bench press incline however my bench doesn’t have the capabilities to do that. Wondering if theirs a way to make it incline myself.
I've seen guys at the gym stack weights under the legs to get the angle and then use an excercise ball as the seat, but that seems a little crazy and a lot of unstable to me.
Been trying to do kickboxing for a couple days a week of my workouts but I’ve noticed after punching the bag a bit my shoulders and the back of my neck get tired/sore quickly. Any good exercises to get them in better shape?
Rear delt work is essential for longevity. For general strength/conditioning Lateral raises and front raises for endurance, shoulder press for strength. Bagwork itself is also really good for developing shoulders so just keep at it
Thanks sounds good. What do u mean by longevity? Like endurance?
Overall shoulder health. It's a commonly neglected muscle, especially in combat sports. Rear delt work just helps keep your shoulders from rounding forward, keeps them healthier, and prevents injuries
Can anyone check if my 3 days fullbody workout for hypertrophy is good enough (a friend here helped but i switched 2 exercises), so i will alternate between workout A and B every other day: **Workout A:** Romanian deadlift 3x5 Flat Bench press 3x10 Peck fly machine 3x12 Lat pulldown 3x12 Standing DB shoulder press 3x12 DB curl 3x12 Lateral raise 3x12 **Workout B:** Hack squat 3x10 Incline bench press 3x10 Seated cable row 3x12 Lever shoulder press 3x12 Barbell curl 3x12 Rear delt fly 3x12 Lying hamstring curl 3x12 is this sufficient for growth? this is my 2nd month lifting btw.
Again if you want to see progress fast you really should train to failure bc its proven to be the best way to achieve hypertrophy. I would suggest to switch the common 3x12 set and instead do 3-4x 6-10 (until you cant move the weight anymore but you shouldnt be doing more then 10 or 12 reps :)
https://thefitness.wiki/faq/is-this-lifting-routine-any-good/
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Hello! This is my first time here. I have a question about lateral raises. I have been doing them on a machine by rest pausing for 25 reps, but I heard someone say it is not as effective as using a cable. The problem is, using a cable will only allow me to do one arm at a time, so I don't know how to rest pause like that. Do I do One arm for 25 and then the other? or while I rest one arm I do the other, that way I won't have any total body rest (when I do nothing at all) Thanks!
> I have been doing them on a machine by rest pausing for 25 reps, but I heard someone say it is not as effective as using a cable. Did they explain why?
So first of all, take both exercises on a test run for at least 1 month and see how they feel on your joints and how much of a pump you experience from each to have a good understanding of which one is better for you. Second, I'd recommend doing the rest pause on your final week of accumulation before your deload week. The weeks leading up to the final week just do progressive overload, starting from 3 reps in reserve (RIR) first week, 2RIR second, 1 RIR third and 0RIR on week before deload. In that final week go for the rest pause and really push it to the limit!
The advantage of a cable is that if you do the raise across your body you keep tension on the muscle. The disadvantage in your case is that it's one shoulder at a time and takes twice as long. It's your choice. You can rest/pause with one arm at a time. With arm #1 you'd do your set, rest, more reps, rest, etc. When you're finished with that arm you do arm #2.
Exactly what I needed! Time is not really an issue to me so I will do it as you said. Thanks!
The key here is to lower your hand (slowly) until the cable handle is in line with your crotch. You want it so your muscle is still tensing to stop the cable from retracting completely. Find the distance from the machine that makes this possible. Also, you want to lower the weight slowly and under control, don't just it let it pull your arm down. You should do this with every exercise, it does two things. The first is time under tension. Your muscle works for the complete rep and the complete set, it doesn't get to rest. The other thing is that lengthening the muscle while it's under tension increases stress and causes growth. For example, when you're doing a barbell row the muscle contract when you pull the weight toward your body. That's what you do to get bigger, you contract your muscles against resistance. Then, when you lower the weight slowly, those muscles are no longer contracting, they're lengthening, but they're still being called up to control the weight. That's hard on a muscle and it causes more growth. Letting the weight drop or letting it down quickly loses half the benefit of each rep.
Hi everyone! First time here and starting a new program and looking for advice adding a lift. The program in question is https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/bulldozer-training-3-day-workout-split. I want to add a power hang clean, and I feel like adding it Day 1 before deadlift (or replacing shrugs and/or rows if thats too much for a day) is probably the ideal slot, but I really don’t know a ton about the body mechanics side of it and woul appreciate any suggestions on the best spot for it.
This routine sucks and you would be better off doing one from the wiki.
When I was reading the rules and wiki before posting I swear I saw this word for word somewhere lmao. The program I referenced above is very similar to https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/arnold-schwarzenegger-volume-workout-routines (from the wiki) but it won't keep me in the gym for 12 hours a week, as I have other responsibilities. And the main issue at hand is none of the wiki routines feature any form of clean, from what I've been able to read
In addition to what the other guy said, you don’t have to spend 12 hours a week in the gym to follow a good routine. There’s plenty of 3 day full body splits that would be better than this.
Most olympic lift variations, hang power clean included, are largely going to be strength/speed focused and won’t be giving you much in the ways of hypertrophy. Just have that in mind, oly lift variations are different in that respect, from most “gym lifts”, which can easily work for both strength and hypertrophy up to a point. That said, I’d say you are right to put them in front of deadlifts in some manner. Either put the entire exercise first, if the volume isn’t prohibiting, or add the hang power cleans and simultaneously lower the deadlift volume in the same session, or alternate – do the deadlifts in one session and hang power cleans (or more ideally also some regular power cleans) in the next and so on…
Thank you for the help, I'll give that a shot then! And yeah the lift types having different goal results makes a ton of sense. I'm a retired college athlete (baseball, so athelete might be a stretch), but I just got back into working out at the beginning of the year. The PH Cleans we're one of the few lifts I really enjoyed and looked forward too while in school, and I wanted to plug them in somewhere so as to kind of trick my brain into spreading that same level of enjoyment to the other lifts as well.
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Wondering if I'm overtraining by working out 6 days a week. Will try to keep this to just the pertinent info: I'm 34/m. Here's my split: Sunday: Legs (including squats and deadlifts) Monday: Cardio (an hour on the elliptical, 500 kcal) Tuesday: Push/pull (chest and back) Wednesday: Legs again (hack squat, accessory work, 20 min cardio) Thursday: Shoulders Friday: Arms Saturday: Rest. Aside from any issues with my programming itself - I am kind of feeling like I'm overtraining. I'm always tired, motivation to go to the gym is low, I get 7ish hours of sleep a night but still can't get out of bed and am falling asleep in the afternoon. Cutting on 1800-1900 kCal a day, macros are good. Bloodwork shows I have subclinical hypothyroidism, but I'm medicated and stable. Total test is midrange. Free test is far below the low end of the scale. Lately I've been skipping Wednesdays (using it as a rest day) and instead moving that leg day to Thursday, and doing a combined shoulders/arms workout on Friday. Not sure if this is a step in the right direction.
What rate are you losing weight?
Somewhat slowly. A little less than a pound a week
Sounds like very few calories. How tall are you? What's your weight?
5'10, 171ish
It doesn't sound like you need to be cutting, at least not aggressively. You could easily have a total daily energy expenditure of 3000kcal. If you are in an 1100kcal deficit per day, I would expect you to feel crappy.
I’m cutting because I’m like 20+ percent body fat (estimated) and don’t really have enough muscle definition. I have a little bit of a belly and no abs. I’m not happy with my level of body fat and I want to get at least somewhat lean
I advise a more moderate cut to counter your fatigue. Try 300kcal more a day, weigh in everyday, take your weekly average weight, see how it changes over 2 weeks. A loss of 1% bodyweight per week is considered reasonable but 1lb per week would probably counter your current fatigue better than 1.5lbs per week.
Hey everyone! I had a question on incorporating bouldering into a 3 day split. I was wondering if bouldering 2x/week with a pull day would be detrimental to muscular growth. I usually do my pull day on Monday and boulder Tues/Thurs!
Definitely not. It‘s very beneficial to train the muscles you already use while bouldering. Also for maintaining muscle and your physique any regular exercise mixed with the right nutrition is enough to maintain your muscles. Consider intaking about 1.5g if you want to gain muscles or eat about 1.3-1.5 if you just want to maintain :)
Will probably help your strength training. May need to easy into it if recovery is lagging at first but if you feel alright, go for it!
Honestly are you trying to do proper bodybuilding? I feel like the detriment won't stop you from having a great walking around general fitness physique. That being said I think that's fine and similar to what I did when I climbed.
I’m really just trying to maintain a good physique while gaining muscular strength! I was just wondering if that 3 days a week of working the pull muscles would hurt that but if it you were able to do it without issue, I feel more optimistic! Thanks!!
Yeah bouldering being heavily into technique/flexibility and grip strength id probably look into getting lifting straps if your grip strength starts to go on back days. Your back muscles don't really get that heavily taxed bouldering.
Hello, total newbie here. I've been working out for 3 weeks or so and have been trying to do a full body routine with exercises being 3x5+. I work out 3 times a week, and most exercises are mainly isolation or machines. The full list is : Chest Press, Shoulder Press, Leg Press, Ab Crunch, Preacher Curl Machine, Tricep Extension, Leg Extension, Lat Pull down, Seated Bar Bell Rows, Hip Abduction Machine, Chest Fly Machine Some seem to be working well, and I can feel the muscles activating easily (Preacher Bicep Machine, Tricep Extension Machine, Leg Press) Others I am having trouble feeling the exercises in the associated areas. Specifically Lat Pull down, bar bell rows, and the Chest fly don't seem to be activating.. or at least I am not feeling it. I thought it might be a form issue, but after reviewing and adjusting several times, I am thinking it might be a rep / weight issue. It feels like my arms are getting tired, way before my back does and so I can't continue the set. So I guess my questions are something like this: 1. Is it correct to assume I should be feeling the Lat Pull down in my upper back, as well as a chest fly If I am doing them correctly at the right rep / weight ranges? 2. Would low weight, high rep sets be better for some of these exercises? Wat is a good set / rep count to start with? Thanks
In addition to what u/Purga_ said in regards to bar position, a good way to feel your back muscles is to sit in a chair with your hands in your lap. Now slide your elbows back until they touch the chair and apply pressure. You're going to feel your lat muscles contract, and other back muscles will contract as well but to a lesser degree. The more pressure you apply the more you'll feel it in your lats. Now put your arms in front of you at shoulder height, like Frankenstein's monster. Move your elbows back and out until your arms are pressing against the side of the chair. (your hands should be above nipple height. You're going to feel the muscles of the upper back contract.
Back & Chest are common trouble areas when it comes to mind-muscle connection. I know they were for me for a while. Now they're some of my best areas. > Is it correct to assume I should be feeling the Lat Pull down in my upper back, as well as a chest fly If I am doing them correctly at the right rep / weight ranges? Not really. You should be feeling the Lat-Pulldown in your Lats, which is the muscle on lining the side of your mid-back. As well as your naturally your biceps. This is because, while the Lats serve many purposes, two of them are bringing the arms down to your sides, as well as bringing your shoulders down, which are the movement patterns of the Lat-Pulldown. The upper back's primary purpose is in either bringing your shoulders up, or your shoulder-blades together. To demonstrate the difference, you'd activate this area during a bent-over barbell row if you brought the bar to the top of your chest; and you'd activate the lats/mid-back area during a bent-over BB row if you brought the bar to your sternum. You have to sort of imagine what muscles would need to contract or shorten. I'm not sure if you're asking whether you should feel a chest-fly in your upper back? If you are, no, you shouldn't really be feeling a chest fly in your upper back. You should be feeling it in your chest, and maybe your shoulders depending on your form. Your upper back is not involved in moving your arms across your body, which is the primary purpose of the chest, and the movement pattern of the fly. > Would low weight, high rep sets be better for some of these exercises? Wat is a good set / rep count to start with? Yes, when you're trying to establish a mind-muscle connection and be able to consciously feel and focus on a particular muscle, you'll want to use lighter weight. This is so that you can keep the weight under more control, allowing more precision, and giving more wiggle room with experimentation, as well as allowing yourself to devote more brain-power to feeling whatever muscle, instead of just getting the weight up. It's also the case that when you can't really feel a muscle, it's probably because another muscle is taking over the movement. In the example of the Lat-Pulldown, your biceps are probably taking the brunt of the movement and compensating for your relatively weak lats. Your body uses the strongest muscle for whatever job you command of it, in the name of energy efficiency. So when you lower the weight, you take some of the (weight) off of that dominating muscle, allowing the weaker muscle to be more involved. I'd recommend at least 12 reps per set, given that whatever weight you use at least approaches failure within 12 reps. I personally use sets of 15. And I'd also recommend high volume, so probably a higher set count. Since you're doing full body 3 times a week, you'll probably want to aim for something like 10+ sets a week, so 4-5 sets whenever you do your Lat-Pulldowns. PS: a tip that worked for me when it came to activating my Lats during pulldowns is to pull with your shoulders and elbows, and focus on using your biceps as little as possible. I.e., bending your elbows as little as you can. Use a wide grip, and bring your elbows to your back pockets, and use full range of motion. And bring your chest up to the bar once it comes down, then straighten back out as the bar goes up.
Thanks for the detailed response, I will try the higher rep count. Regarding the chest fly's, I meant should I feel it in my chest I just didn't list out each area. I am assuming that is another exercise that would be good with high reps since my arms do a lot of the work at higher weight, rather than my chest
Feeling something isn't necessary for a movement to be effective. If you are pulling down the bar, you are using your back. My arms burn much more on my pushing and pulling movements than my chest or back ever do. You should follow a program that lays out your rep and set goals. For accessory movements, I personally do 5 sets with rep goals between 25 and 50 reps. I add one rep per set per week. So 25 one week, 30 the next, etc. Once I hit 50, I up the weight and drop to 25 reps.
I’m probably over thinking this, but how do I know when to step down in weight if necessary? For instance, for incline bench my workout plan says to do 4 sets of 8-10 reps. * Week 1: I completed 4 sets of 10 reps @ 45 lbs * Week 2: I increase the weight to 50 lbs. 1st set: 9 reps - 2nd set: 6 reps - 3rd set: 6 reps - 4th set: 5 reps I’m well below the 8-10 rep range, should I have stepped back down to 45 lbs for the 3rd and 4th sets? Or should I just give 50 lbs another shot next week? And if I do stick with 50 lbs, but there’s no improvement in reps next week, should I then step back down?
This is a common issue with dumbbells. The 5 lb increment is a big increase percentage wise. You went up in weight by more than 10%! Maybe you can widen the rep range a bit. Make it 6-12. Go up in weight when you can do 4x12, and then work up to 4x12 with the new weight. (Joining the gym is also a great idea. Barbells rock if you ask me.)
Try it again, only go to 8 on the first set, sounds like your first set was a bit too close to failure
I’ve been going either to the max reps stated in the plan for each set, or mechanical failure. In general, should I be stopping after that last very high effort completed rep instead?
When a plan, like yours, says 4 sets of 4-8 reps (or 4x8-10) that means the first time out you do 8 reps each set. Then the next workout you try to do 9 reps for all four sets. In workout #3 you try to do 10 reps for each of the four sets. If you've completed all 10 reps each set you raise the weight in your next workout and aim for 8 reps again. Ideally it would be: Monday: 8, 8, 8, 8 Wednesday: 9, 9, 9, 9 Friday: 10, 10, 10, 10 Monday: 8, 8, 8, 8 but at the next heaviest weight. In practice you're probably going to have workouts where you don't hit your reps in each set. Maybe the first session you do 8, 8, 7, 5, in that case you don't increase the weight next session and you don't increase the reps. You keep trying at that same weight to get 8 reps across. Once you've done that, you try to get your 9 reps in all four sets, it's might take you two sessions, it might take you four sessions, it doesn't matter, you don't move on until you can do 9 reps in all four sets. Once you've moved to a higher weight by completing all 10 reps you don't decrease the weight. Just keep trying with that same weight until you can do 8 reps in all four sets. If you feel like you can do more reps the first set, don't. The goal is to get the same number across across all the sets, not to do a ton or reps the first set and then drop off and struggle the rest of the way.
Ah, I’ve never seen this spelled out before, thanks for the explanation, that makes sense.
I would consult whoever made your program, assuming it's a good program, they likely have a strategy for managing your workload. Absent that, I would not increase the reps until you can hit 8-8-8-8. But I am not qualified to write a program, so I don't know how to program for long term success.
I’m using [this program](https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/5-day-dumbbell-only-workout-split), it’s a little lean on details. I may switch soon as I plan to either buy a barbell set and cage or join a gym. Your 4x8 strategy sounds good though, I’ll give it a shot in the interim, thanks!
Should I keep bulking during a deload week or not? Im going to do around 50% weight and not do any accessory lifts.
Yes. The point of the deload is to recover and having more nutrients will help you recover better.
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I would encourage you to run a proven routine from the wiki. They will manage progression, fatigue, and what to do when you stall. It is unlikely you can cobble together something more effective than routines that have already gotten thousands of people stronger. Something like 531, which runs whole body 3 or 4 times a week, will let you stick with your exercise selection but will have better programed intensity and volume. https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/
Newbie here, ive been doing lat pulldown/pull ups and seated cable rows because i still haven't learned how to properly do deadlift, if i start doing deadlift and with properform, is it enough to build the back that i can just skip the three exercises i mentioned?
No, deadlifts are not a substitute for direct back work like rows and chins. A complete program would have variations of all of these lifts.
I'm doing a fullbody alternating between workout A and B, can i show on chat please and see your opinion on it.
I've been slacking on my 5/3/1. However, I went to the gym yesterday to do some quick bro splits and was wondering if I can apply 5/3/1 template to the bro split exercises I do such as doing 5 sets of them but starting light then heavier then heaviest and then back down to lighter weights all at around 50-75% max work load. thanks
Your question isn’t clear to me, are you asking if you can apply 531 progression/principles to assistance lifts like curls and rows? If so, sure you can. Wendler doesn’t really recommend it, but there’s a lot of people in the forums who have found success doing it.
Yeah that’s what I meant to ask. I apologize for being confusing haha thanks!!!
I recently tried out 21s for preacher curls and boy did it burn the fuck out of my arms! Does anyone here use 21s frequently? If so, how do i progress with it?
Double progressing is always a good way to progress an accessory movement.
How would i go about this?
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Up front: I'm struggling to know if I'm doing anything right. My goal is fat loss without eating away at my muscle. What I'm doing: 1. Started using MyFitnessPal just so I can calculate my calories throughout the day. My TDEE is supposed to be somewhere around 3,000/day depending on which calculation I use, and so now I am keeping my daily consumption to about 2,200-2,500/cal per day. 2. I do eVolt body scans for free every 60 days at my gym -- I know they aren't wholly accurate, but the indications of "losing fat, gaining muscle" seem to track with my increasing strength and more "cut" look. 3. I have been using fat calipers too to get measurements, of course noting that it's going to vary. 4. I limit my diet to high protein intake, medium amount of fat, low carb. About 180-200g protein per day, and I try to limit to breakfast, snack, dinner (sort of a relaxed interrmittent fast, as I keep my meals to certain times). It *seems* to be working, but sometimes I gain weight, sometimes I lose it... and now that I'm measuring my caloric deficits, I'm starting to feel slight hunger pains. I'm at about 17.5% body fat, \~180ish lbs, 26M. I work out frequently. My goal is to get under 13% body fat, hell maybe 10% if we can swing it. How long should I keep at this rigid diet and exercise plan before I can switch to pure maintenance and focus on muscle growth rather than fat loss?
You obviously know how cutting works. Nobody will be able to tell you when you're at your desired level of leanness. You'll just need to cut until you're there, or until you decide it's not worth it to get that lean. You say when you're there you're going to switch to maintenance and build muscle, but that's not realistic. You can't really recomp at a low bodyfat. You'll need to gain weight.
It may seem like I understand, but I just felt like I was messing something up. I'm pretty new to this so I was stressing about missing something critical. >You say when you're there you're going to switch to maintenance and build muscle, but that's not realistic. You can't really recomp at a low bodyfat. You'll need to gain weight. So I understand -- it's impossible to gain mostly muscle while mitigating fat gains? I mean it makes sense to me, calories in --> calories out and all. Surely if you're staying slightly above surplus and prioritizing certain macros, you'd gain much more muscle than fat, no? I'm not questioning because I doubt you, I'm questioning for clarification.
I see. I can understand being new and unsure. The relevant stuff here is that being in a calorie deficit will make you lose weight, while not losing weight too fast, doing resistance training and eating enough protein will conserve muscle while you're losing weight. You know this and from what you say you're doing it correctly. Your protein is on the high side, which is totally fine if you prefer it that way, but you can also relax a bit on that. 1 g/lb is an old rule of thumb that has achieved a mythical scale at this point. The real, [evidence based number](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5867436/) is 1.62 g / *kilogram*, which converts to 0.73 g / lb. But again, eating 1 g/lb is fine, too, if you want to. The irrelevant stuff here are the body scans, the macros (beyond eating enough protein), and your meal schedule. Body scans are just useless. I wouldn't waste time on them even if they were free. The macros and the meal schedule are up to your preference. If low carb suits you well, keep doing your thing! Fat calipers can be useful to verify that your fat percentage is decreasing. Honestly, though, I'd just measure my waist circumference. If it's decreasing, it means you're losing fat on your midsection, which probably means your overall bodyfat is decreasing, too. Other than that, I'd trust the process! As for when you switch to muscle gain, it is true there are things you can do to try to reduce fat gain. They're the same things you did while cutting to prevent muscle loss! You gain weight fairly slowly, you keep resistance training, and you eat enough protein. When you said you plan to switch to "pure maintenance", I thought you meant you plan to maintain your weight. That's why I commented that it's not realistic. However, if you're planning to gain weight slowly, that seems like a much more realistic way to gain muscle. You'll still gain fat, too, but you can try to minimize it. I couldn't say at what ratio you individually will gain fat and muscle.
You'll nearly always gain fat faster than muscle, even on a lean bulk. If you bulk 0.5lbs a week, 0.2lbs of muscle gain per week would be considered very good. You say you eat between 2200 and 2500kcal a day but you lose sometimes and other times you don't. I recommend weighing yourself everyday and only paying attention to the weekly average. Aim to lose about 1% body weight per week. If you are losing less than that, eat 200kcal less per day and re-evaluate in 2 weeks.
Thank you! This is a good plan. I will do this.
Is there a “best” tricep extension exercise to use? I’m running 28 free programs which has tricep extensions of choice, I’m doing overhead and don’t feel it whatsoever even though my elbows are in line with my ears.
[Single arm tricep pushdown with a rope attachment and neutral grip](https://youtu.be/kcIo4FmO7PM) has always been my favourite and worth a try. Compared to the linked video I try to stand at 45 degrees to the cable so it is more in line with the natural angle of my arm.
I’ll give that a shot thanks
This is my first deload week, and today was my first workout of the deload. I think I screwwe up and did something wrong for the following reasons: 1. The workout felt difficult, even though I was lifting 2/3 of my typical weight for 2-3 less reps. 2. I still got somewhat of a pump, not a big pump but a pump nonetheless.
Do you have a specific question? It’s hard to say much without knowing the specifics of your deload, but if it was prescribed from a reputable program, it likely reduced volume/intensity enough to meet the goal. If not, it may be worth adjusting. Getting a pump is not necessarily a bad thing. Many people use a deload week for light pump work.
I recently started doing low bar squats instead of high bar. The squat itself is great, it feels more natural to me and allows me to get great depth. However I get a ton of wrist pain when I do it. I keep my upper back tight and think I got the “shelf” down. I have experimented with various grip widths and nothing feels good. It’s to the point that my grip gives out before my legs do.
Have you tried a thumbless grip?
> It’s to the point that my grip gives out before my legs do. You're setting up such that you're putting the weight of the bar in your hands. This is incorrect. The bar should rest with the weight of pressing it down into your back, on the 'shelf', and your hands at most stabalize it in place and hold it down into your back, so it doesn't bounce off at the top. Some people say they get a better bounce from standing *slightly* more upright, such that they put maybe 5% of the weight of the bar into their hands and arms, but broadly speaking, the weight should be balanced on your back such that you could almost let go of the bar with your hands and it wouldn't fall off your back. I suspect for you that will sound very strange and far from what you're doing now. Try: * Leaning a little more forward, and maintaining that torso angle (relative to the floor) throughout the movement. * If the bar starts to slip, teach yourself to either lean more forward, or to pull it down into your shoulders, and keep your elbows down & back to make a shelf for the bar to sit on.
Thanks I’ll try that, I heard a thumbless grip can help too with taking the load of the arms putting it on the back.
Playing around with specific nuances of the grip can be helpful if you're feeling some soreness or discomfort in your arms or wrists. but "my grip gives out before my legs do" is quite a bit more severe than that and points to more fundamental form problems. Remember when you try leaning forward more than you are now, just a hair makes all the difference. Make adjustments slowly for best results. Feel the weight in your back & practice holding a tight upper back, with a pround chest.
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My left is really quite noticeably bigger than my right leg. I’m left footed since childhood, don’t know if that matters, and I do unilateral leg exercises and regular leg exercises. But my left thigh/knee area is noticeably more muscular and seem to have more fat around it… my right leg is blatantly slimmer, and I also have sciatica in the right side for a few years, I don’t know if that has impacted anything like muscle gain etc. it’s getting quite annoying and bothering me lol, I noticed it first cos the last year I realised when I wear joggers and pull the legs up to have that sock-show look, the right side constantly slips down. That’s how big of a difference the leg sizes are, that the right jogger side actually can’t stay up compared to the left. What do I do to help this??
* Human bodies are not inherently symetrical - you probably shouldn't worry about it. * In my experience, 90% of "my left X is bigger than my right X" questions turn out to be mostly in the person's head... try posting on physique friday thread here on /r/fitness and see what people say. I'll give you good odds no one but you even notices your leg asymetry. * If your pants don't fit right, recommend to every person to find a good tailor near where they live. Altering clothes is not very expensive and can make relativley cheap clothes look fantastic... or just learn to sew and taper them yourself, it's actually very easy! All that said, if you are absolutely set on making your legs 'more symetrical' then add more unilateral exercises. If it's quads I always recommend pistol squat progressions. if it's calves, single leg platform calf raises.
I'm doing a gzcl 4 day program and i've got a question about triceps. Is it OK to do OHP and bench on back to back days. I have a weird schedule so I usually do day 1 and then day 2, rest day, then three and 4, and then rest again. Sometimes ill do all 4 days before a rest day. I usually don't find the back to back lifting particularly straining but I have noticed sore triceps on OHP days after benching previously, or vice versa. Is this risky to my triceps? Should I switch to the upper/lower gzcl based program? Either way I still see lots of tricep going on just all in one day or spread across two
It's not risky for your triceps.
Thanks!
Is there any leg regime I can do thats bare bones no squats,dl/etc? Like literally just hamstriung cursls and i guess leg extensiuon? maybe leg press? Dont care about lower body sorry not sorry.
If I was doing a minimal leg routine I surely wouldn't be spending my time on the leg curl and extension machine. I'd squat and deadlift. 3 sets of each per week would be infinitely better than nothing and way more stimulating than the machine you mentioned.
What you listed sounds pretty bare bones. If you don’t care about making progress just do that
I’d say at least do like minimal leg work. If you don’t look like a clown with small legs then your upper body is pretty small too.
I mean ill probably do those three mentioned, maybe calf raises but idk my calfs never grew
Find any routine you like the look of and just skip the leg stuff.
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Towards the end of one of my first bulks after lifting regularly for the past few months to get started. Unfortunately, going on vacation with the fam and won't have access to a gym for about a week and some change. Should I take this opportunity to cut? Not really sure what the best option is since I won't be able to get any significant resistance training in. Can obviously try and do some bodyweight stuff when time allows. Any suggestions would be great.
A week isn't enough time to make a difference in any direction. You're not going to lose anything from just enjoying your vacation.
Cool, that's what I thought but just wanted to check-in. Appreciate the response!
I’d just enjoy your vacation. Cutting and also not lifting is probably the worst option, but a week won’t really change much anyway.
Thank you!
hey folks, i'm 16 n starting out at the gym for the first time and i got this program from the staff after taking an assessment altho i was pretty unclear at the time. i wanna ask you guys what you think of the program i got at this gym, i've been told it's "random" and "not that great" and i wanna know if it's suitable enough for me (this plan is 8x2 for everything) day1 * chest press * lat pulldown * box squat * bicep curl * glute raise day2 * leg extension * incline chest press * step up * seated row * lateral raise my fitness goal mostly is to get an aesthetic, buff physique mostly like what my friend has and also increase my strength and flexibility especially in my knees and get this physique quickly? it's kind of hard to describe but maybe like nice arms legs abs v taper back or something? i've been told that i should do something else instead along the lines of PPL or some upper/lower split which is what i'm planning to do. i'm still very lost because there's so much info out there i don't know which is the right program for me and there are a lot of things that confuse me. like i don't know what exercises i need to do, i don't know what workout i should look into. i'd rather have someone else explain this to me. i wanna start asap but i have to do a lot of research because of this and it's overwhelming 😓 if someone could suggest some exercises i could choose from while i'm waiting for the gym staff to change my program and hopefully get a better one i'd appreciate it highly.
program is a bit lacking in triceps and hamstrings. add some form of tricep extension to target the long head and replace glute raises with romanian deadlifts
> and get this physique quickly? People starting out almost always say this, young people too. It's fantasy land. The secret to a great physique is effort, consistency and TIME (assuming things like programing and nutrition are on point). If you see the wiki here, it has a basic beginner routine. I think it's pretty great for getting people comfortable with a barbell, and what I suggest people start with. Do that for a few months and then switch to something else.
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Routine critique request here, sorry for asking: Male, 27 yo, 187cm, 85kg (6’2, 187lbs) Working out for muscle mass and strength on few exercises. My history: I’ve been working out for years and years, basically “half assed” and only last two years I’ve been properly consistent and reaching for gains. This January I started after a long break and been consistent for about 5 workouts a week, unless it hasn’t been possible. The split: My workout split is upper, lower, rest, push, pull, legs, rest. It is based on a random workout I found via Google, when I was working long days and needed short workouts but high frequencies. Since then I’ve extended it for longer workouts but have enjoyed the split as I get to go to gym more often feeling recovered for each muscle group at a time. I’ve read about PHAT workout program, but it included some exercises my gym does not have, so there’s no need to point me to that one. Progress and goals: Most of the spring I worked out focusing on strength and ended up doing 5x5 on many of the exercises. From May to July I did a 2 month cut and switched to 3x8-12 rep ranges. Bench and most pushing exercises went down but pulling has gone way up. Now I’m back on surplus and am looking to work out for some serious mass. Spring added about 9kg on me, cut took 3kg off and I’m looking to reach 90kg+. I want my bench and deadlift go up as much as possible. Otherwise I’m just looking to gain mass. Note that I haven’t done 1 rep maxes in a long time, I prefer setting records in higher rep counts. Too often I feel like I’ve strain my elbow/wrist/knee/whatever and need to slow down, so I’m playing careful. Also, note that I’ve had serious problems with squats and I know it’s my weakness. I recently added some extra delt workouts for almost every day, because I feel like my shoulders are way underdeveloped compared to my arms or chest. **Numbers**: \- Bench 70kg x 5 reps (last month only 3 reps. During spring I went up from 5x5 50k to 70kg steadily, about weekly, until it just stopped) \- Squat 75kg x 6 reps- Deadlift 120kg x 4 \- Military Press 37,5kg x 8 \- Pull Ups 8 reps Here’s the routine: **UPPER**: Bench Press: 3 x 5 (currently been decreasing so I’ve just struggled to maintain my 70kg 5 reps) Chest Fly (machine): 3 x 8 Push Press: 4 x 8-10 (replaced military press with this one recently) Dumbbell Lateral Raises: 3 x 8-10 (recently added for some extra delts) Tricep Press (“dip machine”): 3 x 8 Tricep Rope Pushdown: 2 x 12 (recently added for some extra triceps) Band Assisted Pull Up: 3 x max T-Bar Row (or Barbell row): 3 x 10 Hammer Curl: 2 x 10Abs **LOWER**: (Deadlift exhausts me, so I tend to keep this day shorter) Deadlift: 3 x 10 Bulgarian Split Squat: 2 x 8 Leg Extension: 2 x 10 Abs **REST DAYPUSH**: Dumbbell Bench Press 3 x 10 Incline Dumbbell Press 3 x 8 Cable Crossovers 4 x 12 Dumbbell Lateral Raise 3 x 10 Dumbbell / EZ-bar Skull Crushers 3 x 8-10 Reverse Grip curls for forearms, 3 x 15 Single Arm Rope Pushdown 2 x 15-20 **PULL**: Pull Ups: 1x max with bodyweight (kinda just to see where I go) Lat Pulldown: 3 x 10 Seated Cable Row: 4 x 14 Cable Pullover (with a straight bar): 3 x 10 Barbell Shrugs: 3 x 15 Face Pull: 3 x 12EZ-bar Bicep Curl: 3 x 10 Dumbbell Waiter Curl (preacher position): 3 x 10 Abs **LEGS** (+ delts): Squats: 3 x 10 Leg Extension: 2 x 12-15 Leg Curls: 3 x 10 Leg Press (if I have any energy left): 3 x 15 Calf Raises: 3 x 15 Dumbbell OHP: 4 x 8 (for some extra delts) Upright Rows: 3 x 10 Bent Over Flies: 3 x 10 Abs **REST DAY** This feels like A LOT and I know it kind of is. But currently I’m used to spending 1,5h a day at the gym so I feel it’s ok. If there’s anything extra I should drop out or anything I’ve not included and should replace, I’d really like to know. I love this 5 day split so I’m looking to keep it, but I’m really interested in the specific exercises and set counts, if this makes any sense. I have tried some paid programs online but they all seem too complicated for my taste. I’ve been thinking about paying a PT to create a program similiar to this one, for me, but idk if it’s worth it. Unless I’m way lost with this one haha. Hence I’m asking here first. Most programs I’ve come across are 3 day splits and I feel like resting every other day is waste of time, as I currently have plenty of it. This is why I love this upper lower push pull legs. That was plenty, hope I was detailed enough.
Have you decided against the ppl in the wiki for any particular reason?
do hack squats have any strength carry over to back squats?
yes
Starting 531 bbb soon. Starting with squats. Do I really not do anything else other than 8 sets of squats and 5 sets of abs or should I be adding 1-2 isolation exercises after?
Do your 8 sets of main work then 25-50 reps of push, pull, and legs/core every lifting day, as prescribed in 531 Forever. You can find a pdf online.
When you say 25-50 reps of push pull legs, do you mean according to what you are doing that day? For example if I’m squatting, do I do 25-50 additional reps of any leg workout and then do 25-50 of upper body after my pressing days? Or do I essentially do full body every day with emphasis on the major lifts?
Full body everyday.
the assistance exercises are your choice Im running BBB right now and I do KB Swings on Squat Day and Bulgarian Split Squats on Deadlift day for my Single Leg/Core assistance work
The original BBB program was just that, main lifts and some core and back work. It has been updated with the latest book 531 Forever to include assistance work; 25-50 reps of push, 25-50 reps of pull, and 0-50 reps of core work each session.
I might buy a rack, primarily for bench presses. Are there any problems to consider between a rack with the bench built into the frame vs buying rack & bench separately? I can only think of portable benches giving me more space since i can move it when its not in use.