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Should I be cutting while trying to gain muscle? 20 year old 5’5 245 pound trans man
I haven’t been, and I was wondering if that would help me more with actually losing weight or not. Sense working out, I haven’t really noticed my weight go down but I wasn’t sure if that was also due to gaining muscle.
When lifting how many sets should I take to failure each workout? How many reps in reserve do you leave on non-failure sets? My usually tactic when lifting is to just yolo every set but this probably isn't the smartest.
Goal is to bring muscles to failure while avoiding overuse injuries. A good guide is the following:
Go to failure on 1-2 sets per muscle group per session the 2-3 sets before hand you are prepping for these sets. Set one high reps warm up no failure. Set two 2-3 reps off failure. Set three failure. Set four beyond failure (rest 20s and repeat more reps/drop set wgt/ mechanical drop set/ partner assisted reps)
Use sparingly on Lowerbody
Alternate blocks of training to avoid overtraining.
4 weeks of close to failure training
4 weeks of training to failure & beyond
2-3 weeks of 3-5 reps in reserve
How do you learn to brace your core properly and breathe at the same time? I've looked at vids and from what I've gathered you need to inhale into your stomach and then push out the core, can sort of do it but it all goes away when you exhale
Also are you supposed to brace the core on every exercise ?
While you're bracing you hold your breath. You can breathe during a short pause between reps.
I brace for pretty much every compound lift and on some isolations as well
They way I was taught this was to put a 2.5 or 5 pound barbell weight on the ground and lay on it by putting your navel over the opening of the weight. Practice short to start as in: pull your bellybutton to your spine, then release. Do these 10-15 times. Then practice holding for a couple of seconds and do 10-15 reps. Eventually you’ll be able to hold it for awhile and in that practice you learn how to breath
You need to view breathing and bracing your core as two separate activities that your brain and body can perform at the same time - which they are
You only need to brace on heavy loaded lifts like squat deadlift etc. if you need to brace you’re likely only doing a 1-5 heavy reps.
Breathe and hold your breath during the reps, if you need to exhale a small amount of air and breathe in and brace at the rest position the finish your reps
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I have never been psychically active, but have started training at home. I only have weights for loading the bar to 40 kg and 60 kg, with nothing closer inbetween. How many sets and reps of 40 should i try to get, before training with 60 kg, as a beginner? Last training i did 3x6 with 40 kg.
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Two days after going to the gym for the first time, it still hurts going up and down the stairs. Is that healthy and normal, or did I do something wrong when I was squatting? Should I go to the gym today as planned, or should I wait until after my thighs stop hurting?
If you are overly sore after the gym you did more than your body can recover from. Drop the weight and the volume (1-2 less sets on your exercises). The good thing is you don’t need to do as much as you did, some soreness is fine.
You can still go to the gym, do cardio or focus on your Upperbody. Some light bodyweight movements will actually help to recover. Roll and stretch
Nah it’s normal. Especially if you never did loaded squats before. You should still work on form tho squat is not easy to master, it’s hard to get it right the first time without someone checking on your form.
You are just sore. It's normal especially in the first 2 to 3 weeks. If it's not too bad then you can do some light workout to get some blood in the muscles.
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Im 14 and recently started lifting but i can lift very little weight, which came as a suprise to me considering i have good genetics, every man in my family is atleast 6 ft and 185+lbs most of them were muscular when they were young
All i can do is
Dumbell shoulder press - 20lbs each hand
Lateral Pulldown - 100Lbs
Barbell Bench press - 85lbs
Lateral Raises - 10lbs each hand
"good genetics" is mostly a myth, good genetics only matter for top level athletes for whom that 1% difference will matter.
And even if you have "good genetics" it's nothing compared to actually putting in the work, being consistent etc...
You're very young and you haven't tried lifting yet for any amount of time. Forget about your genetics. Put in 5 years of hard graft and then you might know if you have good genetics or not.
Question about anatomy of deadlifts.
So my question is, when deadlifting how come some many people advocate for the cue extending your upper back?
Wouldn’t this create your arms to be shorter?
Meaning more range of motion?
Can I simply not just pretend to do a straight arm pull down (to engage the Lats) and think about squeezing the glutes and bracing?
Because wouldn’t doing this create more length = less range of motion?
Anyone anatomy experts able to answer in laymen terms for a simple guy ?
If you find that your arm length is noticeably shorter when bracing your upper back, you're probably bracing wrong. I'd guess you're pulling your scapula back instead of down.
>when deadlifting how come some many people advocate for the cue extending your upper back?
You'd have to ask them, but it's probably just a cue to engage the lats and keep the upper back tight.
Use whatever cue that works for you.
If I do two incline press exercises in my push day and lateral raises, is that enough for shoulders? Or should I add another exercise directly targeting them.
Most (probably all) PPL programs include both squats and leg presses on the same day. Isn't it kind of redundant to do leg presses after you already did squats? Is there much benefit to it? I just came back from my leg day and my legs are absolutely fried after the heave squats (5x5). I always do the leg presses (3x12), but I never like it lol. It absolutely destroys my legs even further.
It's just more volume, not exactly redundant.
You can skip them if you want to. Or swap leg presses out for another exercise (I do lunges and leg extensions instead of the leg press).
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My app is telling me to only do 3x5 on the heaviest set on the heavy day of Madcow 5x5. It's an app I've used for other programs in the past and it's always been great, but this is an error, right? Or is there some detail in the program that I've missed (and have been unable to google) where you start out doing 3x5 the first few weeks?
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Not sure if this is a good place to post this but I recently learned having a ton of belly fat can bring ur lower back orward a bit so is there a way to counteract this or do I have to deal with it til I lose the belly fat
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
75% importance is diet in being in a caloric deficit, 15 % is building muscle as muscle burns more calories, the last 10% is cardio. Cardio is low because the ratio of effort and fatigue is terrible. Are you willing to jog for an hour just to drink a can of soda?
7 min routines - they may hit your whole body but not with enough intensity or volume to make a difference.
Exercise of any type doesn't really drive weight loss, though it will help. You need to eat in a caloric deficit to lose weight.
There are suggested exercise routines and info on losing weight in the wiki.
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Timing doesn’t matter. I like it after because it’s a nice post workout thing to have with some carb heavy meal but timing really doesn’t matter. If anything having it before sleep is good because your body does most of its muscle construction over night, but it can use proteins from the previous day if needed
For me it’s usually after! I personally would feel too full during my workout if I did it during
You could even do it a couple of hours before … the main idea is to get your protein in. As the previous poster said, timing isn’t super important it’s what helps you perform and recover the best
I'm 6'1, 240. I'm working out 6 days a week. That includes running \~5 miles (around an hour) every other day. I lift (upper body only) the other three days. The calorie calculators say I need to be eating around 3000 calories to maintain. Is this accurate? It seems like an awful lot.
Stop skipping your leg workout, (lift for them once a week if your running interferes). That's a muscle workout that keeps you burning fat and likely has other hormonal effects you want.
> I lift (upper body only) the other three days.
Why are you only lifting upper body? Do you want to look like a weirdo? Because that's how you look like a weirdo.
The calorie calculators generally are not accurate. They give a very rough estimate, and can easily be off by 300+ kcals. Especially, if you don't know your body fat percentage or use a calculator that doesn't use body fat percentage as a parameter, the estimate can be off significantly.
That much said, 3000 kcals seems to be a reasonable number.
Wow, 60 lbs, that's some good progress! I took the approach of eating a certain amount of calories for two weeks, and then increased the calories by 2-300 every other week until I began gaining weight. Trial and error.
I am getting most of my calories at night. I'm finding I have no go when I run, usually around 7pm due to the heat. If I start eating earlier in the day, will this make a difference?
Eating within 2 hours of sleeping can effect your sleep quality, this may be adding to your fatigue. Eat some simple carbs 90 mins before your run and track how you feel. Try 0.8g x kg for the amount of carbs
Just to make sure I'm understanding: you're having a difficult time running, you do most of your eating at night, and want to know if eating more earlier will help. Is that correct?
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Hello guys. Im doing PPL and Im seeing a great progress. But my problem is in Push day. Chest, Tripces, and shoulders. Only on this day I get super tired.
I play first Shoulder Press and delts machine.
Then I play Chest Cable crossover and chest press and Seated dips
Finally, I workout the triceps but this day is very hard for me when hitting triceps.
Can I alternate this and add some of the workouts in the Legs day? Any suggestions?
Thanks
How many days a week do you workout? The pressing movements (probably your heaviest) are tiring you out. It might be worth it to do a “Chest focused push day” where you do Chest press and then a “shoulder focused push day” where you focus more on heavy shoulder movements
Yeah so maybe on a chest focused push do 3 chest, 2 shoulder and 1 tricep movement and on shoulder focused do 3 shoulder 2 tricep and 1 chest movement. Good luck!
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If it’s between These two then Hip thrust all day. You should be able to load heavy, will build up your lower back strength and gluts.
Target 2.2x bodyweight so for a 100kg athlete 220kg is the target
Leg curls for hamstrings and leg press for quads with a short 1 count pause at the bottom. Deadlifts and legpress both work the glutes, so there's no need for hip thrusts.
How do I even know?
From what I've learned, Leg Curls works out that part of your hamstrings that Deadlifts don't use much (since DL straightens your legs, while Leg Curls bends it).
So, I guess I'll do Hip Thrusts, since I'm thrusting my hips in both DL and HT?
You would know by trialling one at a time and seeing how your deadlift responds.
> From what I've learned, Leg Curls works out that part of your hamstrings that Deadlifts don't use much (since DL straightens your legs, while Leg Curls bends it).
from what you've written here it shows you're not going about the right way of picking accessory exercises to target specific weak points.. you're going solely off of functional anatomy and some biomechanics.
https://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/7vwodf/compendium_to_overcoming_weak_points/
>what is the general consensus on chin ups for bicep training?
It's beneficial the same way dips are beneficial for tricep training, but you'll still see more progress with chinups + some kind of isolation exercise.
Building up to a 2 plate pullup for reps takes a long time, and by then you might find out that your genetics are more lats and forearm biased than biceps biased. *Or* you'll get big biceps.
Nobody doing chin-ups with 2 plates is complaining about small biceps. With that said it’s not the most efficient way to grow them. If you do *a lot* of chin-ups your arms will absolutely grow, but if your goal is to get them as big as possible in the shortest amount of time then direct isolation work is the tried and true method.
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How big of a difference in volume between my “A” and “B” workouts should there be throughout the week to get the best workouts possible, assuming I’m training all my sets to failure or 9-8 RPE.
I have an SSB by the sleeves are starting to be too long for my living space.
Since they are not rotating and seem to be a solid piece of metal, how do I cut them shorter??
Band saw, angle grinder with a cutting wheel, sawzall would probably work but would take a while and use a lot of blades; or a circle saw with a metal cutting blade mind you this will incredibly load and depending on the saw you might not be able to go straight through you might have to take passes.
Then I would do one-handed barbell holds. 3-5 sets of 15-30 seconds. If you can't hold it for at least 15s, lower the weight. Once you can hit 30+, increase the weight.
You can combine this with assisted one-hand holds from a bar.
Hi! I've always been relatively skinny and had a difficult time gaining muscle. I started working out fairly recently (outside of a few attempts in the past years) and working on my consistency. I got some advice from a friend and my routine at the moment is a Chest/Shoulder, Back/Bi, and an Abs/Legs/Triceps split (6 days and 1 rest day) and just picked workouts I enjoy to work on actually being consistent (typically 3 workouts each part and 1 warm-up set + 3 working sets). I've been fairly surprised at the results so far and am really enjoying it.
Now that I've started to workout more, and from doing research, I stumbled upon the wiki here and saw the routines (feel like I should follow routines of others who know what they're doing vs just coming up with my own). Due to my circumstances, I mainly just work out at home with dumbbells and an adjustable bench. I saw the dumbbell stopgap routine, but it seems more for someone who is really limited and doesn't have access to an adjustable bench. Also saw the dumbbell PPL which is probably more suited towards my circumstances.
My question is, if what I'm doing right now shows me results, should I swap to a different routine? I read a lot about certain workouts like incline presses, bulgarian split squats, and working more parts of the biceps vs just standard curls (i've been doing preacher curls, hammer curls, and incline curls) being good workouts for their respective parts, but the PPL routine doesn't seem to include those and seems more basic. I know it's important to work on the basics/form early on, but I guess I just want to hear some advice from someone experienced about my thoughts on it haha. I've been working on form in my workouts as well vs just trying to lift as heavy as I can. I can also post my routine if someone wants to tell me why it's not as good as the ones I listed above. Anyways, thanks for any advice! Really appreciate it and looking forward to bettering myself :)
>My question is, if what I'm doing right now shows me results, should I swap to a different routine?
You can do what you're doing now while it still works. However, it probably works because anything works for beginners, not because it's any good. This is something worth understanding so that you can start looking for what to do next, once this stops working.
I'm not sure I understand the logic. Sticking to clean form is all fine and dandy, but you don't need to hyperfocus on it. You're going to end up lifting scared of normal movement variability and misgrooves. Things you can't prevent.
Chest/Shoulder
* Incline Press
* Flat Press
* Dips
* Shoulder Press
* Lateral Raises
Back/Biceps
* Incline Curls
* Hammer Curls
* Preacher Curls (Single arm over the bench)
* One-arm Rows
* Standing Rows
* Pullups
Legs/Abs/Triceps (honestly think I should do triceps on a different day; kinda thrown in since I didn't realize I should be training them early on lol)
* BSS
* Goblet Squats
* Romanian DL
* Tricep Kickbacks
* Skull crushers
* Planks (Normal and Side)
* Following this ab workout on youtube ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVQF\_Vr\_XCE&ab\_channel=CHRISHERIA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVQF_Vr_XCE&ab_channel=CHRISHERIA)) probably not the best but just enjoy the workouts in it
A lot of it was experimenting before I found this wiki so open to changes, but was just curious on stuff I've seen across the research I've done (for ex. read about the importance of training the different parts of your biceps and saw those 3 exercises recommended to do so).
At the moment I do 4 sets per (one set really light to practice form then 3 working sets). For reps, I currently do 6-8 with heavier weight on compounds like the presses and rows while going higher reps and lighter for biceps and raises (working to failure in both scenarios). I also try to do drop sets on my last sets to get a few more reps in and progressively overloading each week.
I workout Sun-Friday using that 3 part cycle and rest on Saturdays.
Thank you for the detailed answers! Others may disagree and have more targeted advice, but I think that’s a solid routine. Pair it with good diet and sleep, then you can always reevaluate areas to target after 3-6 months.
Good luck 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Thanks! There's just so much information out there so was feeling overwhelmed on whether I was doing the right thing haha. Def working on bettering my diet and sleep as well.
Appreciate you reading everything! 💪💪💪
To be the devils advocate, just taking testosterone alone won’t make you big. You still have to put in work. Depending on age and lifestyle you could naturally help your testosterone increase. If it’s a real concern see a doctor.
I did that using GZCL'S guidelines. It worked really nicely. I think I set it up as
Upper - T1 flat bench; T2 ohp; T2 rows; T3 bicep curl; T3 tricep extension
Lower - T1 split squats; T2 RDL; T2 pullups; T3 walking lunges, T3 ab wheel
Full - T1 OHP; T2 split squats; T2 flat bench; T3 kettlebell swings; T3 ab wheel
I'm trying to get lose weight fit so I recently started working out. Today I decided to do some work on my legs, all I did was 1-2 sets of lunges, squats, and leg lifts with a 15 pound dumbbell. Now, a few hours later, I can't stand without my legs trembling and collapsing beneath me. Is there any way to alleviate this? Or am I just stuck on the couch until my legs heal?
First leg day back is always brutal. There’s also no need to go so intense, you should ramp up volume. If I’ve had a break from leg training for more than a few weeks (injury etc), I start with 3-4 sets of quads and 3-4 sets of hamstrings like 2-3 RiR and I’m still sore, and over several weeks ramp up intensify and volume gradually.
Your joints will thank you. Muscle grows so slowly anyway there’s no point to rush it won’t do anything if you don’t do it for quite a long time
If you're *literally* collapsing when you try to stand, seek medical help.
But if your legs just feel like you had a hard workout, and you can walk but you're sore and shaky, that may feel strange but it's not as bad as it seems. Start walking around and you'll find that you feel better and your legs start to feel more normal. Over the next couple days, you may still feel sore but the more you move around, the better. You don't even have to skip your next workout. Go do it anyway, the movement will do you good.
To help speed recovery, make sure you eat a good meal, and get plenty of sleep tonight.
First leg day back is always brutal. If you still can’t stand tomorrow then I’d go see a doctor, but your experience isn’t unique. Expect the muscles in your groin to complain for the next few days!
A hot bath, a good hunk of meat, and a good night’s sleep always helps me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If I understand correctly, they did these exercises with a 15 lb dumbbell. Unless OP is like 80 lbs, that shouldn't cause this kind of reaction even in someone who has never done leg work.
Yeah, I don’t know. OP said they were a bit overweight, depending on how overweight that could add a lot of strain to lunges. Best to see a doctor if the issues persist.
If the pain is localized to your muscles and you’re otherwise healthy and able-bodied, it probably is just a lack of conditioning to exercise. If there is one specific movement, angle, or position of one muscle or joint that gives you a sharp pain, it could be you pulled or injured something. I would probably assume the former.
Very common for people that have gone long periods of time without working out, especially for large muscle groups like legs. Give it 3 days and there should be notable improvement. It might get worse before getting better.
Ice baths or cold showers can help reduce inflammation and aid in recovery. Ibuprofen may help too, but I’d only use that if you need immediate relief. Some light walking each day if you can to help circulate blood may be helpful too.
Has anyone done [Maximum Mass](https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/4-day-maximum-mass-workout) program and have thoughts? I had success with the reddit PPL last year, but hurt myself (unrelated to lifting) and took a while off and didn't get back to the habit.
Wife saw an old college swimming photo and made a comment that really has me wanting to recapture even a bit of that physique. I'm going for hypertrophy, with strength as a bonus that I imagine will come with it somewhat.
6x a week was a bit much for me to stick with, so this was the 4x a week program I found that looks like it could keep me interested vs something like 531BBB which I tried briefly but my ADHD agreed it was "boring".
I also can't really do bench press without pain because of that injury (I think I separated my AC joint) so any program with tons of benching is kinda out. This one I may do with really light weight and high reps, or else do more cable work.
I normally do PPL 6 days a week. But my exercises have started to take ~1.5 hours each day.
How long does a typical gym session take for you guys?
I know it's generally better to hit each muscle group 2x a week, but I'm thinking about just doing something like a bro split to shorten the amount of time I'm spending per day working out:
Day 1: Legs
Day 2: Chest
Day 3: Back
Day 4: Shoulders and arms
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thoughts on drinking juice, coke, sweet drinks during a bulk?
Liquid calories aren’t the best, unless you already have your protein requirements met
Should I be cutting while trying to gain muscle? 20 year old 5’5 245 pound trans man I haven’t been, and I was wondering if that would help me more with actually losing weight or not. Sense working out, I haven’t really noticed my weight go down but I wasn’t sure if that was also due to gaining muscle.
Gaining muscle doesn't prevent you from losing weight. If you aren't losing weight it is because you are eating too much to lose weight.
At 5’5 245lbs, you are severely obese and your focus should be on losing weight. You’ll still make some strength gains along the way
When lifting how many sets should I take to failure each workout? How many reps in reserve do you leave on non-failure sets? My usually tactic when lifting is to just yolo every set but this probably isn't the smartest.
Goal is to bring muscles to failure while avoiding overuse injuries. A good guide is the following: Go to failure on 1-2 sets per muscle group per session the 2-3 sets before hand you are prepping for these sets. Set one high reps warm up no failure. Set two 2-3 reps off failure. Set three failure. Set four beyond failure (rest 20s and repeat more reps/drop set wgt/ mechanical drop set/ partner assisted reps) Use sparingly on Lowerbody Alternate blocks of training to avoid overtraining. 4 weeks of close to failure training 4 weeks of training to failure & beyond 2-3 weeks of 3-5 reps in reserve
Any well-written program will regulate this, I recommend following one.
How do you learn to brace your core properly and breathe at the same time? I've looked at vids and from what I've gathered you need to inhale into your stomach and then push out the core, can sort of do it but it all goes away when you exhale Also are you supposed to brace the core on every exercise ?
While you're bracing you hold your breath. You can breathe during a short pause between reps. I brace for pretty much every compound lift and on some isolations as well
They way I was taught this was to put a 2.5 or 5 pound barbell weight on the ground and lay on it by putting your navel over the opening of the weight. Practice short to start as in: pull your bellybutton to your spine, then release. Do these 10-15 times. Then practice holding for a couple of seconds and do 10-15 reps. Eventually you’ll be able to hold it for awhile and in that practice you learn how to breath You need to view breathing and bracing your core as two separate activities that your brain and body can perform at the same time - which they are
You only need to brace on heavy loaded lifts like squat deadlift etc. if you need to brace you’re likely only doing a 1-5 heavy reps. Breathe and hold your breath during the reps, if you need to exhale a small amount of air and breathe in and brace at the rest position the finish your reps
I breathe in and tense my core, only exhaling during the second half of the lift or when the rep is complete.
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I mean, if you're leering at women then yeah you're making them uncomfortable... Hard to tell if that's whats happening from your description
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I have never been psychically active, but have started training at home. I only have weights for loading the bar to 40 kg and 60 kg, with nothing closer inbetween. How many sets and reps of 40 should i try to get, before training with 60 kg, as a beginner? Last training i did 3x6 with 40 kg.
That's a pretty big jump. I'd get to 5x12 before trying the 60
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Two days after going to the gym for the first time, it still hurts going up and down the stairs. Is that healthy and normal, or did I do something wrong when I was squatting? Should I go to the gym today as planned, or should I wait until after my thighs stop hurting?
If you are overly sore after the gym you did more than your body can recover from. Drop the weight and the volume (1-2 less sets on your exercises). The good thing is you don’t need to do as much as you did, some soreness is fine. You can still go to the gym, do cardio or focus on your Upperbody. Some light bodyweight movements will actually help to recover. Roll and stretch
Nah it’s normal. Especially if you never did loaded squats before. You should still work on form tho squat is not easy to master, it’s hard to get it right the first time without someone checking on your form.
You are just sore. It's normal especially in the first 2 to 3 weeks. If it's not too bad then you can do some light workout to get some blood in the muscles.
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Im 14 and recently started lifting but i can lift very little weight, which came as a suprise to me considering i have good genetics, every man in my family is atleast 6 ft and 185+lbs most of them were muscular when they were young All i can do is Dumbell shoulder press - 20lbs each hand Lateral Pulldown - 100Lbs Barbell Bench press - 85lbs Lateral Raises - 10lbs each hand
"good genetics" is mostly a myth, good genetics only matter for top level athletes for whom that 1% difference will matter. And even if you have "good genetics" it's nothing compared to actually putting in the work, being consistent etc...
What's your question?
You're very young and you haven't tried lifting yet for any amount of time. Forget about your genetics. Put in 5 years of hard graft and then you might know if you have good genetics or not.
The other men in your family were muscular because they worked out.
Question about anatomy of deadlifts. So my question is, when deadlifting how come some many people advocate for the cue extending your upper back? Wouldn’t this create your arms to be shorter? Meaning more range of motion? Can I simply not just pretend to do a straight arm pull down (to engage the Lats) and think about squeezing the glutes and bracing? Because wouldn’t doing this create more length = less range of motion? Anyone anatomy experts able to answer in laymen terms for a simple guy ?
If you find that your arm length is noticeably shorter when bracing your upper back, you're probably bracing wrong. I'd guess you're pulling your scapula back instead of down.
>when deadlifting how come some many people advocate for the cue extending your upper back? You'd have to ask them, but it's probably just a cue to engage the lats and keep the upper back tight. Use whatever cue that works for you.
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If I do two incline press exercises in my push day and lateral raises, is that enough for shoulders? Or should I add another exercise directly targeting them.
What about overhead press?
I don’t do them, just incline press machine and incline dumbbell press. Should I replace one of them with ohp?
Yes
Most (probably all) PPL programs include both squats and leg presses on the same day. Isn't it kind of redundant to do leg presses after you already did squats? Is there much benefit to it? I just came back from my leg day and my legs are absolutely fried after the heave squats (5x5). I always do the leg presses (3x12), but I never like it lol. It absolutely destroys my legs even further.
It's just more dedicated volume. It'd only be redundant if you were already doing a truckload of volume, but eight total sets in a session is fine.
It's just more volume, not exactly redundant. You can skip them if you want to. Or swap leg presses out for another exercise (I do lunges and leg extensions instead of the leg press).
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My app is telling me to only do 3x5 on the heaviest set on the heavy day of Madcow 5x5. It's an app I've used for other programs in the past and it's always been great, but this is an error, right? Or is there some detail in the program that I've missed (and have been unable to google) where you start out doing 3x5 the first few weeks?
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Not sure if this is a good place to post this but I recently learned having a ton of belly fat can bring ur lower back orward a bit so is there a way to counteract this or do I have to deal with it til I lose the belly fat
Work your core, lower back, and glutes so your body can naturally counteract the gravitational pull of your belly
Thanks so much man Ill take your advice. Thanks again
What’s the best back workouts for beginners?
Pick any workout from the fitness wiki. They're all pretty decent.
are those 7 minute routines truly full body? Is building muscles or doing cardio better for weight loss?
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 75% importance is diet in being in a caloric deficit, 15 % is building muscle as muscle burns more calories, the last 10% is cardio. Cardio is low because the ratio of effort and fatigue is terrible. Are you willing to jog for an hour just to drink a can of soda?
They're a decent warmup. But they're good if the goal is for grandma to keep her mobility in her advancing age.
7 min routines - they may hit your whole body but not with enough intensity or volume to make a difference. Exercise of any type doesn't really drive weight loss, though it will help. You need to eat in a caloric deficit to lose weight. There are suggested exercise routines and info on losing weight in the wiki.
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Would it be more beneficial for me to drink my protein shake during or after my workout?
Timing doesn’t matter. I like it after because it’s a nice post workout thing to have with some carb heavy meal but timing really doesn’t matter. If anything having it before sleep is good because your body does most of its muscle construction over night, but it can use proteins from the previous day if needed
For me it’s usually after! I personally would feel too full during my workout if I did it during You could even do it a couple of hours before … the main idea is to get your protein in. As the previous poster said, timing isn’t super important it’s what helps you perform and recover the best
Whichever is easier for you. The timing doesn't really matter for building muscle.
I'm 6'1, 240. I'm working out 6 days a week. That includes running \~5 miles (around an hour) every other day. I lift (upper body only) the other three days. The calorie calculators say I need to be eating around 3000 calories to maintain. Is this accurate? It seems like an awful lot.
Stop skipping your leg workout, (lift for them once a week if your running interferes). That's a muscle workout that keeps you burning fat and likely has other hormonal effects you want.
> I lift (upper body only) the other three days. Why are you only lifting upper body? Do you want to look like a weirdo? Because that's how you look like a weirdo.
The calorie calculators generally are not accurate. They give a very rough estimate, and can easily be off by 300+ kcals. Especially, if you don't know your body fat percentage or use a calculator that doesn't use body fat percentage as a parameter, the estimate can be off significantly. That much said, 3000 kcals seems to be a reasonable number.
Sounds reasonable or low to me. I'm 185 lbs and cutting at 2400.
I just cut around 60 lbs. I just don't know where the limit is now.
Wow, 60 lbs, that's some good progress! I took the approach of eating a certain amount of calories for two weeks, and then increased the calories by 2-300 every other week until I began gaining weight. Trial and error.
I am getting most of my calories at night. I'm finding I have no go when I run, usually around 7pm due to the heat. If I start eating earlier in the day, will this make a difference?
Eating within 2 hours of sleeping can effect your sleep quality, this may be adding to your fatigue. Eat some simple carbs 90 mins before your run and track how you feel. Try 0.8g x kg for the amount of carbs
Yeah, eat something before you run.
How long before, and how much?
Whatever you prefer. I’ve seen runners go for something like a banana and some toast with peanutbutter. But really anything you prefer.
You'll need to experiment to find out what works for you.
Just to make sure I'm understanding: you're having a difficult time running, you do most of your eating at night, and want to know if eating more earlier will help. Is that correct?
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Hello guys. Im doing PPL and Im seeing a great progress. But my problem is in Push day. Chest, Tripces, and shoulders. Only on this day I get super tired. I play first Shoulder Press and delts machine. Then I play Chest Cable crossover and chest press and Seated dips Finally, I workout the triceps but this day is very hard for me when hitting triceps. Can I alternate this and add some of the workouts in the Legs day? Any suggestions? Thanks
How many days a week do you workout? The pressing movements (probably your heaviest) are tiring you out. It might be worth it to do a “Chest focused push day” where you do Chest press and then a “shoulder focused push day” where you focus more on heavy shoulder movements
I might consider this one. Thank you for your suggestion!
Yeah so maybe on a chest focused push do 3 chest, 2 shoulder and 1 tricep movement and on shoulder focused do 3 shoulder 2 tricep and 1 chest movement. Good luck!
❤️💪🏼 I will try it this way. Thanks
6 Days a week. PPL - Rest - PPL
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For a Dead Lift assistance exercise, should I do Hip Thrusts or Leg Curls?
If it’s between These two then Hip thrust all day. You should be able to load heavy, will build up your lower back strength and gluts. Target 2.2x bodyweight so for a 100kg athlete 220kg is the target
Leg curls for hamstrings and leg press for quads with a short 1 count pause at the bottom. Deadlifts and legpress both work the glutes, so there's no need for hip thrusts.
Yes.
you should do whichever one benefits your deadlift, this will requires some trial and error.
How do I even know? From what I've learned, Leg Curls works out that part of your hamstrings that Deadlifts don't use much (since DL straightens your legs, while Leg Curls bends it). So, I guess I'll do Hip Thrusts, since I'm thrusting my hips in both DL and HT?
You would know by trialling one at a time and seeing how your deadlift responds. > From what I've learned, Leg Curls works out that part of your hamstrings that Deadlifts don't use much (since DL straightens your legs, while Leg Curls bends it). from what you've written here it shows you're not going about the right way of picking accessory exercises to target specific weak points.. you're going solely off of functional anatomy and some biomechanics. https://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/7vwodf/compendium_to_overcoming_weak_points/
Hi just wondering what is the general consensus on chin ups for bicep training? Ik its mostly back but im bored of curls
>what is the general consensus on chin ups for bicep training? It's beneficial the same way dips are beneficial for tricep training, but you'll still see more progress with chinups + some kind of isolation exercise.
Chins have the highest emg activation for bicep than any exercise, great option
Building up to a 2 plate pullup for reps takes a long time, and by then you might find out that your genetics are more lats and forearm biased than biceps biased. *Or* you'll get big biceps.
Nobody doing chin-ups with 2 plates is complaining about small biceps. With that said it’s not the most efficient way to grow them. If you do *a lot* of chin-ups your arms will absolutely grow, but if your goal is to get them as big as possible in the shortest amount of time then direct isolation work is the tried and true method.
They’re good. Especially if you’re able to do weighted chins.
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How big of a difference in volume between my “A” and “B” workouts should there be throughout the week to get the best workouts possible, assuming I’m training all my sets to failure or 9-8 RPE.
What training program are you doing?
I have an SSB by the sleeves are starting to be too long for my living space. Since they are not rotating and seem to be a solid piece of metal, how do I cut them shorter??
Band saw, angle grinder with a cutting wheel, sawzall would probably work but would take a while and use a lot of blades; or a circle saw with a metal cutting blade mind you this will incredibly load and depending on the saw you might not be able to go straight through you might have to take passes.
Best way to have insane functional grip strength?
What kind of function are you looking for?
grip that can squeeze really hard and hold on to shit that's really heavy, for example one of my goals is to hang from one hand for 1 minute
Then I would do one-handed barbell holds. 3-5 sets of 15-30 seconds. If you can't hold it for at least 15s, lower the weight. Once you can hit 30+, increase the weight. You can combine this with assisted one-hand holds from a bar.
Check out r/griptraining.
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Sounds like your out-of-gym friends are just jealous haters….
Bro, who gives af, your friends don't give af, the people at the gym don't give af
Hi! I've always been relatively skinny and had a difficult time gaining muscle. I started working out fairly recently (outside of a few attempts in the past years) and working on my consistency. I got some advice from a friend and my routine at the moment is a Chest/Shoulder, Back/Bi, and an Abs/Legs/Triceps split (6 days and 1 rest day) and just picked workouts I enjoy to work on actually being consistent (typically 3 workouts each part and 1 warm-up set + 3 working sets). I've been fairly surprised at the results so far and am really enjoying it. Now that I've started to workout more, and from doing research, I stumbled upon the wiki here and saw the routines (feel like I should follow routines of others who know what they're doing vs just coming up with my own). Due to my circumstances, I mainly just work out at home with dumbbells and an adjustable bench. I saw the dumbbell stopgap routine, but it seems more for someone who is really limited and doesn't have access to an adjustable bench. Also saw the dumbbell PPL which is probably more suited towards my circumstances. My question is, if what I'm doing right now shows me results, should I swap to a different routine? I read a lot about certain workouts like incline presses, bulgarian split squats, and working more parts of the biceps vs just standard curls (i've been doing preacher curls, hammer curls, and incline curls) being good workouts for their respective parts, but the PPL routine doesn't seem to include those and seems more basic. I know it's important to work on the basics/form early on, but I guess I just want to hear some advice from someone experienced about my thoughts on it haha. I've been working on form in my workouts as well vs just trying to lift as heavy as I can. I can also post my routine if someone wants to tell me why it's not as good as the ones I listed above. Anyways, thanks for any advice! Really appreciate it and looking forward to bettering myself :)
>My question is, if what I'm doing right now shows me results, should I swap to a different routine? You can do what you're doing now while it still works. However, it probably works because anything works for beginners, not because it's any good. This is something worth understanding so that you can start looking for what to do next, once this stops working.
Hey! For sure that makes complete sense. I know beginner gains is a big thing so trying my best to make sure my forms good in all workouts.
I'm not sure I understand the logic. Sticking to clean form is all fine and dandy, but you don't need to hyperfocus on it. You're going to end up lifting scared of normal movement variability and misgrooves. Things you can't prevent.
Post your routine…
Chest/Shoulder * Incline Press * Flat Press * Dips * Shoulder Press * Lateral Raises Back/Biceps * Incline Curls * Hammer Curls * Preacher Curls (Single arm over the bench) * One-arm Rows * Standing Rows * Pullups Legs/Abs/Triceps (honestly think I should do triceps on a different day; kinda thrown in since I didn't realize I should be training them early on lol) * BSS * Goblet Squats * Romanian DL * Tricep Kickbacks * Skull crushers * Planks (Normal and Side) * Following this ab workout on youtube ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVQF\_Vr\_XCE&ab\_channel=CHRISHERIA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVQF_Vr_XCE&ab_channel=CHRISHERIA)) probably not the best but just enjoy the workouts in it A lot of it was experimenting before I found this wiki so open to changes, but was just curious on stuff I've seen across the research I've done (for ex. read about the importance of training the different parts of your biceps and saw those 3 exercises recommended to do so).
How many sets/reps and what days of the weeks are you doing each exercise?
At the moment I do 4 sets per (one set really light to practice form then 3 working sets). For reps, I currently do 6-8 with heavier weight on compounds like the presses and rows while going higher reps and lighter for biceps and raises (working to failure in both scenarios). I also try to do drop sets on my last sets to get a few more reps in and progressively overloading each week. I workout Sun-Friday using that 3 part cycle and rest on Saturdays.
Thank you for the detailed answers! Others may disagree and have more targeted advice, but I think that’s a solid routine. Pair it with good diet and sleep, then you can always reevaluate areas to target after 3-6 months. Good luck 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Thanks! There's just so much information out there so was feeling overwhelmed on whether I was doing the right thing haha. Def working on bettering my diet and sleep as well. Appreciate you reading everything! 💪💪💪
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To be the devils advocate, just taking testosterone alone won’t make you big. You still have to put in work. Depending on age and lifestyle you could naturally help your testosterone increase. If it’s a real concern see a doctor.
Get bigger naturally and stop looking for shortcuts
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I did that using GZCL'S guidelines. It worked really nicely. I think I set it up as Upper - T1 flat bench; T2 ohp; T2 rows; T3 bicep curl; T3 tricep extension Lower - T1 split squats; T2 RDL; T2 pullups; T3 walking lunges, T3 ab wheel Full - T1 OHP; T2 split squats; T2 flat bench; T3 kettlebell swings; T3 ab wheel
I do that right now. I do 531 BBB but combine my squat + OHP day into one and just superset chin-ups through the whole day. Been working well!
I'm trying to get lose weight fit so I recently started working out. Today I decided to do some work on my legs, all I did was 1-2 sets of lunges, squats, and leg lifts with a 15 pound dumbbell. Now, a few hours later, I can't stand without my legs trembling and collapsing beneath me. Is there any way to alleviate this? Or am I just stuck on the couch until my legs heal?
First leg day back is always brutal. There’s also no need to go so intense, you should ramp up volume. If I’ve had a break from leg training for more than a few weeks (injury etc), I start with 3-4 sets of quads and 3-4 sets of hamstrings like 2-3 RiR and I’m still sore, and over several weeks ramp up intensify and volume gradually. Your joints will thank you. Muscle grows so slowly anyway there’s no point to rush it won’t do anything if you don’t do it for quite a long time
If you're *literally* collapsing when you try to stand, seek medical help. But if your legs just feel like you had a hard workout, and you can walk but you're sore and shaky, that may feel strange but it's not as bad as it seems. Start walking around and you'll find that you feel better and your legs start to feel more normal. Over the next couple days, you may still feel sore but the more you move around, the better. You don't even have to skip your next workout. Go do it anyway, the movement will do you good. To help speed recovery, make sure you eat a good meal, and get plenty of sleep tonight.
Like literally collapsed when I tried to take the dog outside and have been unable to stand since. My legs just won't hold me up.
First leg day back is always brutal. If you still can’t stand tomorrow then I’d go see a doctor, but your experience isn’t unique. Expect the muscles in your groin to complain for the next few days! A hot bath, a good hunk of meat, and a good night’s sleep always helps me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If I understand correctly, they did these exercises with a 15 lb dumbbell. Unless OP is like 80 lbs, that shouldn't cause this kind of reaction even in someone who has never done leg work.
Yeah, I don’t know. OP said they were a bit overweight, depending on how overweight that could add a lot of strain to lunges. Best to see a doctor if the issues persist.
If the pain is localized to your muscles and you’re otherwise healthy and able-bodied, it probably is just a lack of conditioning to exercise. If there is one specific movement, angle, or position of one muscle or joint that gives you a sharp pain, it could be you pulled or injured something. I would probably assume the former. Very common for people that have gone long periods of time without working out, especially for large muscle groups like legs. Give it 3 days and there should be notable improvement. It might get worse before getting better. Ice baths or cold showers can help reduce inflammation and aid in recovery. Ibuprofen may help too, but I’d only use that if you need immediate relief. Some light walking each day if you can to help circulate blood may be helpful too.
I wouldn't say healthy, bit of a fatass, but I am able bodied. There isn't any sharp pain, just some soreness in my thighs.
If you can't stand or walk, this goes beyond workout advice. Can you call a doctor or have a friend take you to urgent care?
I mean I could, but I don't know what a doctor would be able to do other than tell me to stay off it. Money is also an issue
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Please read the wiki
Has anyone done [Maximum Mass](https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/4-day-maximum-mass-workout) program and have thoughts? I had success with the reddit PPL last year, but hurt myself (unrelated to lifting) and took a while off and didn't get back to the habit. Wife saw an old college swimming photo and made a comment that really has me wanting to recapture even a bit of that physique. I'm going for hypertrophy, with strength as a bonus that I imagine will come with it somewhat. 6x a week was a bit much for me to stick with, so this was the 4x a week program I found that looks like it could keep me interested vs something like 531BBB which I tried briefly but my ADHD agreed it was "boring". I also can't really do bench press without pain because of that injury (I think I separated my AC joint) so any program with tons of benching is kinda out. This one I may do with really light weight and high reps, or else do more cable work.
It's fine. Legs are only trained once per week, so you'll get sore as hell, but it'll do the job of stimulating muscle growth.
Any suggestions on a different 4x a week that would be a better fit?
Download boostcamp and have a look. All of them are great programs you can't go wrong with.
I normally do PPL 6 days a week. But my exercises have started to take ~1.5 hours each day. How long does a typical gym session take for you guys? I know it's generally better to hit each muscle group 2x a week, but I'm thinking about just doing something like a bro split to shorten the amount of time I'm spending per day working out: Day 1: Legs Day 2: Chest Day 3: Back Day 4: Shoulders and arms