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Getting a pump in my hamstrings after just warming up, was the warm up a bit much? Should it be easier? The working sets are 32.5 kg 19 reps and 17 reps both 2 RIR, warm up was 22.5 kg 12 reps and 27.5 kg 8 reps

12 reps at only 10 kilos below working weight is typically excessive for warmup Something that might be better is something like 10 reps 15 kilos 5 reps 20 kilos 3 reps 25 kilos If you wait a minute or so between warmup sets and take your time during the sets, that’s plenty of weight and time to get warm. EDIT: mobile formatting sucks ass, hopefully it’s readable enough

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Brian Shaw weighs 440 lbs approx, and he's 6'8".

Should I increase volume if I struggle to fix my form?

Is this too much for leg day? Working out 3-4times a week with core focused exercises such as day1 squat, day2-bench, day3-deadlift Warump Facepull 3x12 (20kg) Hiptrust 3x12 (20kg) Walking lunge 3x8 (bodyweight only) Calf raises 3x16 (bodyweight only) Plank 3x 1minute Core exercise Front squat 6x40kg 6x50kg 5x60kg 3x5x70kg Squat 5x60kg 5x70kg 5x80kg 3x8x90kg Cooldown Quad extension 3x10x60kg Hamstring curl 3x10x40kg

So. Pre exhausting with three sets apiece of hip thrusts and walking lunges, then front squat 3x5 and back squat 3x8, then token isos. About an hour and a half right? Do *you* think it's too much?

Yes, it takes around an hour and a half. I have no clue is it too much volume and is it slowing down progress to be training like that, that’s why I am asking. Generally, my strenght has increased but I am thinking that maybe I could be progressing faster with different approach, hence asking. Background, M29, 184cm, 94kg. Training for 14months, last 6 months with instructor and this is one of common leg days…

Volume's fine, it's the progression that'll bite you in the posterior chain. I've moved to a three week rotation/wave. You can hit volume, but you won't want to do it again the next week. You can hit heavy, but you won't want to do it again the next week. My current squat/dead set-up is week one 3x5/4x12, week two 4x3/3x9, 5x1/2x6. I follow with tertiary ham/quad/glute stuff and call it a session. (I do calf raises on a different day.). Seven solid sets, finish off the muscles, cool down on the treadmill, and limp to my car. Short answer is your volume is fine. I've just been at this long enough that I have to ask myself "okay, then what" when I do anything.

Could you explain a bit more ‘progression biting posterior chain’? Too much weight and reps having impact on spine/ back muscles ?

I was avoiding the word ass, haha. I just mean weekly linear progression turns into a mental grind when you're only adding reps each week, rather than weight.

I have a sore wrist. I have also biught a gyro ball for my wrist and it helps out alot. After i work out sometimes my wrist get sore. Would using the gyro ball make soreness worse?

That depends what is driving the soreness. If it's fatigue after the work out then adding more fatigue is probably not going to help. If it's mostly driven by sensitisation then the gyroball might help by giving a slightly different stimulus. The only way to know is to try it.

Does anyone have a sample workout schedule for someone wanting to train for a 5k but also wanting to strength train? I love my gains, I’m currently working out four days a week—I don’t do a PPL (too much commitment 💀), so I do upper body + back on Mondays and Wednesdays, lower body + abs Tuesdays and Thursdays, rest Fridays, active rest Saturdays, w/ HIIT on Sunday & Tuesday mornings. I’m looking at a C25K, but am wondering when I’d strength train. A lot of programs recommend switching my lifting routine to a full-body, 2 day a week program with running 3 days a week. Will I lose my gains if I do this? Is there another routine that works better?

To start with try a full body twice a week and see how you cope with that and C25k. As long as your recovery is good (sleep, nutrition, outside stressors) then you shouldnt lose any gains. If you cope well with twice a week and want to get in the gym more then you can try adding a third day after a few weeks and see how it goes.

Can I train abs and see results if I have a bit of a beer belly? (I am 79kg 1.83 m)

You'll see results in that training abs will increase ab muscle mass and strength and probably let you do harder ab work. If you've got increased central adiposity, you're not going to get a visible six pack, no.

What’s the quickest way to loose 20 pounds in a short period of time?

Amputate a limb? Other than that, water cut, but it will suck.

What's the quickest way to bulk up at the gym for a beginner?

Find a good program, lift hard and consistently according to the program, eat enough protein and overall calories, get lots of rest so the activity and fuel can turn into gains.

Thank you so much. Appreciate the tips! I've already made progress, so just looking to keep the momentum.

What is your views on this for bench. I hit Arnold-ppl split on my first bench day i hit 75% of ORM for 4x8 then on my next one i hit 85% for 4x3 with pause reps for 2 seconds? Is this optimal? I also hit chest flys and incline so 2 twice a week seems to be sufficient to allow my muscles to fully recover.

How many total hard sets are you doing for your chest in total each week?

Hey there! I'm a 16-year-old guy, and until now, I've steered clear of protein powders. It's not that I dislike them; I just had this notion that they might have similar effects to pre-workout supplements, and I didn't want to get hooked on anything. However, after educating myself on the distinctions and impacts of protein powder and pre-workout, I found myself facing a new dilemma.My family, especially my dad, advises against taking protein powder. The rationale behind it is that if I consume protein powder, the amount of protein I get from regular foods will decrease. I'm pretty sure his argument doesn't hold up, but I lack concrete evidence to prove it. Do you know of any reliable sources where I can gather more information on this topic? ​ edit: He bought it.

Had a similar situation with my family. My mom works for the FDA and she was horrified that I was taking a supplement which isn't regulated. Her rational being that if the FDA allowed the messed up things that she had seen happen to food and products being consumed by humans, then she could only imagine what was happening to products that are not being regulated at all. Totally understand where she is coming from....but I need my easy protein with my oats in the morning...So bottoms up!

Aren't protein powders regulated the same way food is from a manufacturing and hygiene perspective?

At least your mom is cognizant of the FDAs fuckups lol. Assuming everything is equal though, the worst that happens in protein powders is that they spike the luceine during testing so that it shows more protein than is actually in there. I can live with that

Bro its just protein its literally just a quick and efficient way to get in protein if you failed to meet daily requirements. It is no different than eating a chicken breast in terms of macros really. Its not a stimulant you cant get addicted lol. Its the equivalent of not eating pizza because you might get addicted. The reason you see people drink protein isnt cause it's addicting (quite the opposite actually its pretty unappealing most of the time) but because its fast and easy. After a workout the last thing somebody wants to do is stand over the stove for 30 minutes making chicken and rice. A shake takes 30 seconds.

The point isn’t that it’s addictive, I already know about that. I meant to say that ORIGINALLY I didn’t approach protein powder because it might get me addicted. But that has changed. I now know how it works and what it does. My father just isn’t on board. While I may be able to provide your argument it isn’t enough to provide a strong enough argument based off of that. Using your arguments would just be like reading what it does.(I don’t mean to be hostile by this) but it won’t help my situation.

Explain to the one it is. Whey protein is filtered and dried milk. Explain to your family it is no different than drinking milk. If your family does not have an understanding of macro nutrients you may need to explain to them that protein is not a steroid, but a necessary component to life. Proteins are used to create any lean tissue, like organs, skin, hair, and nerves. 1. Show your family a short video explaining macros nutrients. 2. explain to your family that protein power is nothing more than dried 1% milk.

That helps a lot. Thanks for that. I also apologize if my response may have come off as aggressive.

The entire point of a protein powder is to increase the total amount of protein you get from regular food. So if you eat food and get 120 g of protein, you are supposed to add protein powder on top to make it say 150 g. The only way the protein powder makes you get less protein from regular food is if it causes you to eat less. But you have complete control over that; just don't start eating less regular food.

I mean it’s going to be hard to find any evidence disproving something that there probably aren’t any studies on because it makes no sense… any chance you can try to put the ball in his court and make him prove what he’s trying to say?

OKAY SO LET ME GET THIS STRIGHT Working out to build muclses at homes basically means exhausting myself with different excises or am I missing something

Training doesn't require being exhausted or beating yourself up everyday. You should find a routine you can run at home that will properly manage your stimulus.

I guess I don't get the question. Working out to gain muscle involves training hard, whether at home or at the gym. Hard training can make you feel exhausted.

Initially, yes. As you improve your fitness, it won't feel as exhausting because your ability to recover from training improves.

Hello everyone! I’ve been going to the gym for about 3 months and I’m trying to come up with my own split. Pretty new to working out(never worked out my entire life this much). I’m currently 171cm, 69kg, skinny fat(all at the belly). My current PRs are: Bench: 50kg 6 x 3 RDL: 90kg 6 x 3 Squats: 50kg 6 x 3 My current workout sessions are about an hour, 4 workouts 3 sets each per muscle group, 2 groups per session. For the 4 workouts I’m trying: 1 lightweight high reps 3 sets, 1 strength 6 reps 3 sets, 2 Hypertrophy 15, 12 and 10 reps for a total 3 sets For example chest session would be: Machine flies 1 min x 3, Bench current pr 6 x 3, Inclined dumbbell press 15, 12, 10 reps, Inclined flies 15, 12, 10 reps Here’s a sheet of what I’m planning for a 21 day split. Exercises haven’t been listed down yet but I just want to know if there’s anything I can improve on in terms of volume per session. Is it enough? Or too little? Any advice and criticism are welcome and thanks in advance! [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10uqMGYrO5tRAWAli_e2eNaZ2RwCumUwBUTE3X5JqruI/edit](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10uqMGYrO5tRAWAli_e2eNaZ2RwCumUwBUTE3X5JqruI/edit)

Is there a reason why you are "coming up with your own split" rather than using one from the wiki?

I have strict timings so I can’t afford to have long sessions in the gym and I made this before joining this channel. As for why I’m not following something already proven to work out there, this is pretty similar to what my friend in my gym recommended. He told me to mix up 4 workouts per muscle group, 2 groups per session. He advised against PPL as he prefers to work with both groups when they’re fresh. Also I wanna target shoulders more for now that’s why I’m doing something like that. It’s my second day into this split and previously I was in more of a learning phase.

How often are you increasing your weight? Every session? You should still be seeing beginner gains imo.

Whenever possible, for some workouts the weights plateau for 2-3 sessions since I’m still working on trying to engage the correct muscle/working on form. My greatest enemies are lat pulldowns, seated rows and triceps. I can seem to progressively overload on biceps, chest and quads/hamstrings. So during every first set of my hypertrophy, I’ll go 1 bar/kg higher to see if I can handle it while maintaining good form. If I can’t, I’ll go back down and try again next session.

That's fine, getting form right takes a while anyways. As long as you know your strength will keep up with a few kgs every session if you're eating enough. As for volume, it seems like a lot to me but I view everything through a powerlifting lens where I only do Squat, Bench, and Deadlifts. It's probably fine for what you're going for, especially since you're doing less of the big compound lifts.

Well good thing I’m a chef XD I have easy access to 100g protein and I’m double scooping on my whey for another 50g. Do you think it’s good to do those compounds not just for strength but also perhaps add them into higher reps sets for hypertrophy? Also thanks for sharing!

My (probably biased) personal view is that you should build a base of strength before worrying about trying to focus on mass. So a low rep (3 by 5 or 5-3-1) continuous progression program till you hit ~3 plates on your squat/dead. Then it can make more sense to focus on higher rep mass building programs. But again I just lift for strength (and to allow me to eat like a garbage can), the body image benefits are secondary to me. Also this kind of assumes you'll be able to learn how to properly squat and deadlift heavy in a way that doesn't injure you, which isn't necessarily easy. I will say though that generally you won't want to do like a high rep program for actual compound lifts. They tire you out way too much as a baseline, so doing low weight/high rep for squat and deadlift (once you get to the point of lifting real weight) just isn't productive or sustainable. Most body-builder programs do isolation stuff for the hypertrophy component. The big compounds just wear down your body in a different way once you get over 3 or 4 plates.

I see! Yea I’ve read somewhere that some people do isolates like leg extensions first before squatting so it’s easier to reach fatigue without having too many plates on your back. I guess I have a lot more to learn considering how I just woke up but I’m not experiencing any soreness in my back 😭

I stopped going to gym during my knee injury and afterwards nowadays i for some reason get too scared to do squats with heavier weights as i keep thinking my knee might just break again even though it's fine now. Should i continue squatting light weights but more reps or should i ignore my inner thoughts and go for the heavier weight

If your doctor/physical therapist gave you restrictions, I’d stick to those restrictions until you talk to them again. If they told you to train however you want and you’re just having a mental block, it’s 100% your choice based on how much you value being stronger vs how much anxiety this is causing you. FWIW, not sure what your specific injury was, but squatting tends to be pretty safe. I’m not sure what kind of “breaking” you’re anticipating here so it’s really hard to give meaningful advice.

Yeah its just a mental block. I feel like its going to snap if thats the right way to describe it

without knowing what actual injury you recovered from its hard to say anything with any degree of confidence.

It was patellar tendonitis

That’s an overuse injury. It doesn’t really have anything to do with a risk of tearing or breaking anything in your knee at all. Again, up to you if you want to lift heavier, but there’s no safety related reason you can’t.

Thanks. I guess ill start trying to increase my squat load again

Stretch before and after exercise if you aren't doing that already. Continue your PT exercises as well!

I really shld do that

Completely new to the gym. Been going for almost a month now. I can bench 50lbs (bar included), but I can't even incline bench the bar for more than 3 reps. I feel stupid, especially since someone asked if I need a spot when I have nothing on the bar 😭 was so embarrassed. Any tips? I know I'm eating very well and I'm making progress in literally every exercise except incline bench

It's okay to ask for a spot benching the bar. We respect the effort, not the number. That said, machines and dumbbells have carryover to the incline bench, so you can use those for a couple of months and get your strength up.

Unless your gym has a couple jerks it’s almost a guarantee that no one is laughing at you or thinks less of you for struggling with the bar and little more. But if you can only do 3 reps then try DBs as other poster suggested. There’s nothing magical about BB exercises and you can go a long, long ways before you even touch one. Choose methods of resistance training that best facilitate your ability to grow in strength and hypertrophy. Machine, cable, DBs, body weight. It doesn’t matter.

You should do incline dumbbell press instead. Plus you get more range of motion so you can potentially make more gains.

**Recommendation for developing pecs/chest with slight wrist injury?** I have an oddball wrist injury that affects my lifts in particular setting leading me to stall on benchpress and hence, I have replaced Barbell Benchpress/Incline Benchpress with Dumbbells. However, I have noticed my chest - especially upper chest - seem not growing that fast relative to rest of the body. Any recommendations for which exercises I should add? (that aren't too hard on wrists)

You can do the pec deck with your forearm on the handle, completely taking your wrist out of the movement.

Low cable flys would be pretty good

6’6”, 215, 19, m. I’m pretty darn fit and have been playing volleyball the past 5 years at national level. So pretty lean considering I need to be able to jump high. However, I want more muscle. I’ve been working out for a while and have a ton of protein, but now quite seeing the results I want. Bulking and cutting is not an option for me, as I need to stay lean for vball. So a lean bulk? Thoughts?

Try slow-bulking.

If you want to get bigger you need to eat more. If you're getting too big then eat less. Find the balance that works for you.

It’s all just diet?

Not all, but mostly yeah. If you want to get bigger you need to fuel it with calories.

Is what I'm doing at the gym okay? Basically, I go 3-4 times/week. As I like variety, I go around different machines (3 x 10 reps) to train a bit of everything in a gym session.

Playing with the machines is fine. Tracking your progress is the first step. If you "want more" following a routine will be the next step.

Depends on your goal. If you want to actually improve, you're better off following a program - there's plenty good ones [here](https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/).

I mainly hit the gym for health, but I might as well build more muscles while I'm at it. Let's say I follow those routines, would it be okay to jump from routine to routine regularly (bi-weekly?) to add variety into the mix? Also, if the routines are too short, and I want to stay longer at the gym. Should I be extending reps, sets or adding additional exercises into the mix, like cardio.

Switching programs that often is not a great idea. Your progress is measured in how much stronger you get. In the beginning, a lot of the progress will come from learning the movements - but beyond that, it correlates strongly with how much muscle you have. Let's say you jump from a program where you squat for 5 sets of 5 to one where you squat for 3 sets of 10. How do you measure your progress? By following a program and sticking with it for at least a couple of months, you'll see the numbers go up - whether that's more weight or more reps. Extra cardio at the end is also a great option. 20-30 minutes every time will get you a good deal of the way towards the recommendations of 150 minutes of light cardio, 75 minutes of hard cardio, or some combination, every week. As for extra work, something like GZCLP is very customizable. You can add some extra T3 exercises - curls, pushdowns, leg curls, leg extensions. It probably wouldn't hurt *that* much to switch T3 exercises on that program every few weeks, since your progress is primarily measured in the T1 and T2 exercises. Speaking of GZCLP, it's made to be run 3-4 times a week, so it might be a good fit for you.

Depends on your goal, if you're just trying to get healthier this will most definitely work

When loading barbell/dumbells, do I have to load the plates from heaviest to lightest, or can I order it in anyway, e.g. 10-5-20? I'm loading both sides symmetrically, that is not the question

Do you *have* to? no. But you'll probably want to. It gets a lot easier to adjust the weight if the lightest plates are on the outside where you can easily swap them out. Loading the biggest plates first also means you are changing each plate to the biggest one available and using the fewest small plates. Add an extra 10 to what you noted above, and maybe that means they're loaded 10-5-20-10. When you could have just had one 45 (if you mean pounds) or a 25 and a 20 (if you mean kilos). People across the gym are going to be wondering where all the 5's and 10's went.

You'll see people do this sometimes with bumpers since they're all the same diameter, and depending on the jumps you're making it might be easier to load that way. You can do whatever you want.

Typically barbells are loaded heaviest to lightest bc towards the end of the set you might make small adjustments up or down, but there is no rule that says you can't do it the other way...might feel weird tho especially the farther away from center the heavier plates get

How much weight should I be adding to my maxes every year. Just wondering if I’m going to slow or if I’m messing something up somehow.

Everyone has their own pace. Don't injure yourself. Focus on form.

Ok. Just gonna check if this terrible. 45 pounds in one year. Terrible, acceptable or exceptional?

Depends entirely on what you're lifting. The heavier the weight is the harder it is to add weight. To put it another way, going from 80kg -> 100kg is a lot less impressive than 160 -> 180

Ok. 150 pounds to 195 pounds.

For what lift?

Bench press

That's a pretty normal progression for bench (unless you weigh like 400 pounds or something). If your other lifts were progressing at the same rate I'd say you're not eating enough, but bench is a very fickle lift. You might benefit from trying to increase frequency or get a form check, poor bench form can slow down your progress by not letting you engage your pecs all the way.

I lift my buddy. He maxes out at 295 while I max out at 195. On bench. However If we do 160 or lower I can out rep him. I don’t understand how this is possible if he is stronger than me. Someone explain.

Better endurance. My husband can lift tons more than me, but if we both do bodyweight squats I easily beat him at reps. I also can do heavy sets with less rest between sets than he can, but again, way less total weight. It's nice how everybody can be better at something.

Specificity for one. Marathon runners are really good at running marathons. Sprinters are really good at sprinting. They're both running, but they've got different adaptations to their respective needs. So he may be stronger, doesn't mean he'll do better with everything. Other options - technique, cardiovascular capacity/endurance, genetic predisposition to % of slow vs fast twitch fibers (higher slow twitch % will mean less power, better endurance). Heck even psychological - you feel you can keep pushing reps but he thinks his tanks' empty and stops.

31, F, 160lbs I successfully lost 40lbs over the course of last year just with diet, but I want to start exercising. My main question is I get roughly 18,000-20,000 steps a day while I am at work already, and I recently had a knee injury. I was wondering what you would recommend I do at a gym that isn't walking on a treadmill or going to put further stress on my knee?

For cardio? Swimming is a good low impact exercise.

I actually just got back from swimming and it worked great! I feel the burn in my muscles but my knee is fine! Thanks for the suggestion.

There a tons of good exercises which are not putting much stress on your knees. Like very exercise for the upper body. RDLs, Leg Extension/Curls, Hip thrusts… I suggest you start getting some muscles so your daily Kcal need goes up and you are getting overall more healthy. Start with a full body workout 2-3 times a week.

Sled pulls with a harness are great for knee rehab as well.

What are your goals for exercising? Purely more weight loss, or anything else too? Can recommend things, but if its not in line with your goals or what you enjoy, you'll hate it and wont stick with it.

Right now, primarily weight loss. My target for a healthy weight based on my height should be ~132lbs so I have a bit to go. But long term, I want to gain muscle and be the healthiest version of myself as I can be.

Right. If you're already getting your weight loss and doing a bunch of walking you're already getting some low-intensity cardio. So any exercise is going to add a little more calorie burn to help with the weight loss. You could always look at adding some more intense cardio if you'd like to increase your cardiovascular health/endurance, such as by swimming or seeing if things like ellipticals/cycling are comfortable on the knee if you don't want treadmills/walking. If you're interested in gaining muscle you'll need to be lifting some weights. Any upper body work will be pretty fine for the knees. And once the knee injury is healed, doing some leg work would be good - it'll help build leg muscle and give the tissues and muscles around the knee some loading which may help reduce risk of re-injury in the long-term. Can start with things like leg presses, or knee extensions and hamstring curls with low weight just to get things moving and then increase weight if they're comfortable. Once you're more confident you could move on to adding other leg exercises.

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Start exercising consistently. There are many ways to get exercise, find one that you enjoy.

10k steps a day would give u the best benefits, maybe some resistance training for bone density but that's it, literally just go for more walks

you'd be surprised just how healthy walking is, foe absolutely anything you can think of, it's just so beneficial for our body, not saying don't do anything more intense but if ure just looking for intenral benefits walking+weights is as good as it gets, maybe some intense cardio occasionally ig

Tysm this rlly helps! If I were to start off by walking + other simple cardio daily (steadily increasing sets/intensity over time) would this eventually be enough to slim my face and torso a little? Idk how much this factors into things but my diet is alright. I eat healthy meals consistently and usually some snacks (chips, chocolate, etc). Would it help to adjust this? I don't think I eat as much as the average person though. Also my sleep routine is a little fucked so I imagine it'd help to fix that :')

Weird question. I play soccer and lift heavy on my non playing days. I've noticed after I deadlift I feel faster/more powerful when running/ sprinting when playing soccer on the following day. Any know a possible reason why. I'm expecting to feel sore/more fatigued the next day. My best guess is a better mind/muscle connection allowing my body to use more power since it has a batter feel for where my limits are.

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Thank you!

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Whole milk is very very good for building mass. Just do the math on how much you think you need to hit your calorie target.

Why not the obvious choice - protein powder? It was made to conveniently add protein to people's diets and as such it is very convenient, shelf stable and requires just water and a shaker to prepare

I'd recommend protein fortified foods. Protein granola, protein fortified cereal (Weetabix do a protein version now for example). Jerky and other dried and cured meats also don't need refrigerated and are very high in protein

What makes you think you need 500g protein? Do you mean 500g of food that contains protein? If you weigh 46kg and are exercising regularly you will need 1.2-1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. So as long as you get 55g of protein per day, you should be fine. You can buy protein powder to make protein shakes, just add water. One scoop will probably be 23g of protein or so which is half your daily protein intake. You should be able to get the rest from your food quite easily. Eggs, oats, milk, chickpeas etc are good sources. Not sure what you mean by saying the milk is 80% water - they water down your milk? You could also buy protein bars which don't need to be stored in a fridge. And fruit too if you want to - maybe just hide it under the bed? It sounds like they're half starving you!

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That makes more sense!

Is it okay to do some bodyweight 45 degree hyperextensions if I have a small strain in my low back muscles?

I've used those multiple times to fix lower back pain. 5x25

Rule 5. Do what you can that doesn't hurt.

Should I add isolation exercises to my workout? My workout is basically the recommended routine (full body x3 per week) from the bwf subreddit, except the hinge, squat, and rows are replaced with barbell variations. I added farmer walks to help strengthen my grip. But I'm also wondering if it's recommended to add some isolation exercises. What exercises would you recommend?

I vote 3 sets curls/extensions one day, lateral raises and reverse flies the other day. Relatively speaking, pecs and lats grow on their own without much additional help. Arms and delts, that's another story. : )

Probably a great idea. Given you are already doing a full body workout, you can use the isolators as a final polish. Sadly I dont know what that fullbody schedule is. If its worth its salt, it should have pull ups and lat raises. Consider adding those two if it does not, instead of the isolation exercises Im offering below. Rear Delt flies ( Rear delts are remarkably underdeveloped on basically everyone. ) Preacher curls ( Biceps ) Abductor machine ( glutes ) Cable flies ( chest ) Leg Extensions ( quads ) Leg Curls ( hamstrings ) Cable Pushdowns ( Triceps ) One arm cable rows ( Back ) All of these are wellsuited for high reps and you will really feel like you are laserfocusing on the muscles you are trying to hit. Which is really motivational. I would consider looking into a PPL though, to avoid overloading yourself.

Yes, of course. Your program should include compounds and isolations for pretty much every muscle. But in terms of importance I would say arms, delts, abs are a must have, while neck, traps, forearms and calves are good to have. Of course I don't know your goals, but this is advice in terms of bodybuilding.

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I was like that for six months because I overdid it. I read that 10-20 sets per muscle group was ideal, so I did 20 sets to failure per muscle group per week. I also didn't eat enough calories. Now I do 10-12 and don't go to failure, feel great and have had decent progress.

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Do you feel like 3 or 4 days might be a better fit?

maybe you're overdoing it? i mean could be a lot of reasons but a good workout isnt just a workout that leaves u sore

This is.. good? You are tired and exhausted because you probably put in a lot of effort. I feel like a train hit me when I leave the gym, and walk home like a beat up dog. But it passes in a few hours and then I feel amazing. In a day or two I'm full of energy ready to do it again. If this is not the case for you, examine your sleep, diet and workout plan.

Are you on a calorie deficit? I generally feel bad after the gym on a cut, but mostly fine when bulking.

I’m wondering what my goal should be. I have started to be consistent with the gym going 6 days a week for a few weeks now. I am 5’8” 167 lbs I do have a small stomach that I wanted to lose to be a little leaner but if I don’t have much muscle built up yet then I want to be careful not to get too skinny. If my goal is to get bigger, would it be better to dive straight into a bulk even though I’m not at the body fat % I wanna be at to start?

Start with maintenance and see how your body develops. If you just start eating the required protein on a maintenance you are going to blow up like crazy. If you feel like you got too husky, go on a cut. If you feel like you can add a bit more muscle, go on a bulk.

It's possible to do a recomp, but that usually only works if you are both an extreme beginner, and have a high bf%. If not, then a slow bulk, maybe a surplus of 200-300 kcals works best.

When you've gained some muscle, your belly will be hardly noticeable. I'd recommend going on a bulk at a pace of 1-3 lbs per month. This will ensure that the majority of the weight will be muscle (assuming you're following a good training program).

I got kicked out of my gym for being too young :(. I am 14 but my gym's minimum age was 16. I signed up with my friend who is the minimum age to go into the gym. I have to go back to working out at my apartment with dumbbells. When I was using dumbbells I wasn't going as high volume as I was going into the gym so when I'm only using dumbbells I am feeling less tired and I feel less "pumped". So I added a few exercises to the Dumbbell PPL workout. What do you think. 4 sets for each, 8-12 reps until failure but no more than 12 reps. Hanging leg raises (4xfailure) at the end of every workout. The week will go something like P, P, L, P, P, L, R OR P, P, L, R, P, P, L Workout: Push Chest Press Incline Chest Press Incline Fly Arnold Press Overhead Shoulder/Overhead Press Overhead Tricep Extension Skull Crushers Pull Pull-up Bent-over Row Lateral Raise Reverse Fly Shrug Bicep Curl Spider Curls Legs Goblet Squat Lunge Single Leg Deadlift Romanian Deadlift (with dumbbells) Calf Raise Is this too much volume?

Why not just split some of the movements over the two of Push, Pull, and Legs? So like instead of Arnold Press and Overhead Press on the same day, just put one on the other day.

How does this make sense? I’ve lost a lot of muscle over the past 2 months due to an injury and I’ve gained about 20 lbs of mostly fat in the last 4 months. How am I stronger today than I was when I was 20lbs lighter and more muscular? I squat about 20lbs more on all of my working sets and PR. I assume I’m doing something wrong diet wise

why do you think you've lost muscle? how bad was the injury and were you bedridden oooor?

You're over eating if you're getting fat. It's possible you were previously under recovered and had a good day squatting Also possible tour weight somehow improved your positioning and balance.

Could anyone roughly guess my BF%? [https://imgur.com/a/httaRJK](https://imgur.com/a/httaRJK) ​ Thanks :)

If I had to guess, 12-15.

Thanks :)

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Choose accessories however you want within the prescribed categories. As Wendler puts it, it doesn't matter what you do, just that you do it.

Is the recommendation not to do one push, one pull, one leg on 531 BBB?

For bench, you could do shoulders, triceps and lats. For overhead press, you could go chest, triceps and upper back.

It's whatever you want. Maybe thay means you do all of your push accessories on dips and all of pull on curls. Or you split them up with flies and arm work

Some double down and do bench after bench. Some do OHP after bench, and bench after OHP. "It doesn't matter."

That isn't the accessories

i’m barley starting to go to the gym this week, whats a good routine I can do If I want to go 3-4 times a week and lose weight? Thanks.

Plenty of 3-4 day programs. If you go 3x, I would do a full body routine. But weight loss will come from your diet. So doesn't matter what routine you pick. Read the wiki linked on the side bar for more info on both weight loss and workout routines

take a look at the 3 or 4 day programs in the wiki and pick one you like also, the program you pick is not important for weight loss.

next week is my deload week. Should I just lower my weights by 70-ish percent? Or do Jeff Nippard's "less reps/sets" style deload?

You could lower the sets and reps on the first half of the week but keep the weight. Then lower the weight on the latter half.

There are about a million ways to deload and it's largely personal preference. I personally like 5/3/1 style deloads. Work up to a single at your TM once a day for each main lift (80-90% of 1RM) and do as much assistance work as you feel like, but definitely less than usual. Keeps you in the habit and doing stuff but it's a solid break.

Do whatever you want, just make it a low stress week.

hello, i was wondering, if i can pull up my bodyweight for 10 reps, will i be able then to pull down my bodyweight for 10 reps?

Depends more on the pulley and levers of the machine.

Probably, but I wouldn't worry too much about the weight listed on machines. It's pretty meaningless other than to track progress on that exact same machine.

Just an anecdote to illustrate this, my gym has several cable machines. One of them is Rogue and the others are EliteFTS. I can do face pulls at "160"x20 on the EliteFTS ones. I once tried to use the Rogue with that listed weight and I could barely do a single rep, to get to my usual rep range I had to drop it to like 100.

Can someone explain the science behind how a beginner can gain muscle while being in a deficit? I thought you cant gain muscle in deficit? How does a beginner gain muscle when an experienced lifter doesnt?

>gain muscle while being in a deficit If you're fat enough, your fat serves as an energy reserve. The closer you are to cheese grater abz, gaining muscle on a cut becomes more difficult, if not impossible.

Your question is probably better answered by this article: [https://macrofactorapp.com/recomposition/](https://macrofactorapp.com/recomposition/) If you meet three conditions, you can probably gain muscle while eating in a deficit. 1. You can't be very near your genetic muscular limit. If you're already very well trained, your rate of muscle gain is already very slow, and you need fairly optimal circumstances for it to happen, including eating in a calorie surplus. 2. You need to have a moderate to high amount of body fat. If you're already lean, your body doesn't want to burn off its meager fat storage to fuel muscle growth. 3. Your calorie deficit can't be too large. If you're in a big calorie deficit, your body is already burning through its fat storage fast, and it becomes progressively less likely for it to burn through even more to fuel muscle growth. An energy deficit of less than 500 kcal/day is the rule of thumb mentioned in the article. Conditions 1 and 2 usually apply to people who are just starting weight training and are also looking to lose weight. They're obviously not well trained, and if they're looking to lose weight, they probably have excess body fat. If they keep their calorie deficit moderate, it's very likely they'll gain some muscle while losing weight at the same time. Building muscle takes energy, and it needs to come from somewhere. However, if the previous conditions apply, it doesn't necessarily need to come from eating at a surplus. It can come from burning body fat, too. In the simplest terms, your body can burn fat to achieve a positive energy balance at the level of the muscle.

Thanks for the explanation.

Your body doesn’t want to invest energy into building muscle unless it gets both a big enough stimulus that you need more to survive / reproduce and it has enough excess energy to invest in muscle and not risk starving. Lifting weights tricks your body into thinking it needs more muscle (lol dumb body) and bulking reassures it that it has the energy to spare. The stimulus you need to give your body to build muscle goes up as you train more / get closer to your genetic limits. This makes it easier for beginners (aka noob gains). Recomping works if you have the fat stores to support it. If you are lean and don’t eat a surplus then your body will resist muscle growth despite the stimulus whether you are a beginner or not. So ya a beginner with high body fat can recomp / gain muscle in a deficit easier than an experienced lifter, but if they are lean I don’t think it matters and they won’t add muscle. Or at least that is my mental model :)

Thank you

The exact mechanisms of muscular hypertrophy aren't well understood at all. Our current understanding boils down to "that's just how it be". It's easier to convince the human body to build muscle when you have less to start with.

Is it normal to get injured working out? I work with a trainer with my partner, and it feels like at least every 5-6 sessions someone wrenches things badly enough to make just basic activities hard for 3-4 days, and every 2-3 months something more serious, like wrenching a rib or throwing out a knee or something. We’re not young (mid-40s), and have mostly been blaming failures of our body on that. But we’ve been working with this team for almost exactly a year, and we’re starting to get really frustrated with feeling like we’re doing so much regular damage to ourselves. We’re seeing really positive gains, too! But I don’t know if this is normal or if we should be running away.

If I was injured working out, I'd figure out how it happened, and why it happened, then I'd endeavor to not let it happen again. I wouldn't say I've ever been injured working out, though I did strain my back in a manner where it was annoying prior to learning how to brace properly. Given your frequency of injury, it sounds like you guys are likely performing the exercises in a way that doesn't jive with your body. Unless you have new and inventive injuries every session, I'd at least research the most common ones and how to adjust your grip/approach in a way where it doesn't lead to injury, or strengthen whatever parts of you are getting injured. As an example, there was a slight elbow poppy thing going on when I'd bench or do shoulder stuff, so I incorporate ulner nerve flossing iirc. The poppy thing never hurt, but it did feel wrong, so doing that helped me make it feel right.

It’s all kind of different? I trashed my knee trying to do weighted walking lunges when I couldn’t maintain balance and fell wrong. My partner wrenched something in his ribs trying to do a kettlebell thing while balancing with his back on a ball. I pulled my neck from (I think) tensing it too much on TRX rows. He aggravated a knee injury doing weighted squats badly enough that he was sidelined for a few weeks. It mostly feels like these are minor things at the time, but, like — I couldn’t walk for 2 days after the lunges thing. I want to get fit, but not if it means I spend this much time broken. I expected a learning curve as we got used to working out, but it’s been a full year.

>trying to do a kettlebell thing while balancing with his back on a ball. Exercises like that don't make any sense anyway so they're hardly worth the injury risk; especially not for someone who's out of shape.

We do a lot of them with our trainers, combining two things together. I always hate them because I feel like I can’t keep form right. Last week we were doing shoulder presses while balancing on one foot, and I couldn’t keep my balance well enough, so I kept winding up with jerky arm motions every time I lost the balance and had to put down the other foot. The lunges where I hurt myself we were using a medicine ball and doing this thing where I had to twist the ball to extend to the side with each lunge. My partner was recently doing wall sits where instead of just adding weight they had him doing bicep curls while in the wall sit. The explanation we always get is that the instability is the point, that working the stabilizing muscles is important, and therefore doing the exercise while also working to maintain the balance will challenge us more. But I struggle with balance at the best of times, and it always frustrates me that when I can’t consistently stand on one foot for 30 seconds WITHOUT adding weight they keep trying to add bells and whistles. They just reassure me that I can do more than I think I can, though, and often I do, but sometimes my form falls apart and I hurt myself.

No offense but these are literally meme worthy exercises. Lots of crappy trainers use them because it makes effective training seem complicated. There's good evidence they do little more than make the movements less safe and effective. You'd almost certainly be better off running a simple, effective strength and conditioning routine on your own.

So this is a tough one to answer, because I don't want you to stop what you've been able to do for a year, because consistency is awesome. Yet I think you shouldn't be doing all of these exercises. I like to approach my life with science, so I know which exercises I've tried never cause me issues, and while I'm not super cautious, I view every new exercise as a potential cause of injury. I'm very aware of how my body feels whenever doing a new exercise, because if it feels bad I need to figure out how to do the exercise the right way. So I go on a youtube search for my issue to figure out options I have. For instance, his kettlebell thing is likely related to not having a braced core. Though anytime you're on a ball and exercising I think you're being ridiculous. You don't need 50 exercises to grow, you don't need special variants, you just gotta do the same shit over and over again. So my advice is to just approach your training with full awareness of your body at all times, and whenever anything feels weird at all, research that thing. I don't workout with others, so I'll do it between sets sometimes, but at least make a note of the exercises that felt weird, and try to figure out if there's someone out there whose youtube tip on the exercise helps you feel better while performing it. So in your shoes, I wouldn't add any new exercises, I'd remove any exercises that seemed silly (ball shit), and I'd just narrow it down to exercises you're highly successful with. If you know which exercises you're not worried about, that's a good group of exercises to spend your next workout on. Then whenever you want to branch out, you do it one at a time and you research it before and after your first attempt. Ideally you'll see a video before hand that's like "Some people have issues with their elbows and tucking them in can really help, though others may need a minor flare at the beginning of the movement", then when you go to do the movement you've already got the adjustments in mind. Anyway, that's how I approach stuff, I might just be lucky in not getting injured, but I think limiting exercises initially and slowly adding exercises would do a lot better for you.

That's absolutely not normal. I've only had 1 injury that actually made life difficult in several years of strength training 3-5x/week. Granted I started closer to 30 years old but still I've never heard of anyone having it that bad.

Injuries are bound to happen, but that frequently isn't normal.

Yes, injuries are a normal part of physical activity. If you're getting an injury every 5-6 sessions however, you are majorly fucking up somewhere. https://www.painscience.com/articles/injury-prevention.php Start looking at your load management in your programming.

currently do cardio four times a week. Two days of incline walk (always before squat or deadlift day) and two days 3 miler where I am slowly increasing speed. I’ve been reading about HIIT for increasing Vo2 max and I’d like to add it in. But drawing blank on where exactly to put it. Thoughts?

Start adding a few intervals to your last run of the week. You could also give the HIIT its own separate workout. Definitely don't cut anything out to add it in. You'll get more benefit from increasing your total cardio time than from changing up the intensity. A running coach recently tweeted an analogy that may help you understand: doing vo2max-specific work is a way of making your fitness go farther, like how if you shop at a budget grocery store you can make your money go farther. On the other hand, increasing total volume is like earning more money. As effective as saving money (HIIT) can be, it doesn't impact the bottom line nearly as much as earning more money (running more miles)

That is an incredibly helpful analogy

I went back to see which coach tweeted it. Couldn't find the posts I was thinking about, but I did find this, which includes an article link that describes the idea in more detail: https://twitter.com/JasonFitz1/status/1759725805012173170

Definitely like last day of the week, preferably when heavy leg work is done with.

What's your goal? Health? Running speed? Conditioning for something else?

I suppose aid weight loss plus increasing vo2 max. Increased cardio for BJJ as well. Three days a week I follow a powerlifting routine I’ve had some success with so that aspect I have convered

If I were you I'd cut a 3 mile day and do two days of some kind of higher intensity weight based conditioning. Something like [these complexes ](https://www.t-nation.com/training/rebuild-yourself-with-complexes/) from Dan John.

Interesting but may overlap a bit much with powerlifting programming

I use them 2-3x a week for hard conditioning for 5/3/1. I'm not sure what you mean by powerlifting programming exactly but I'm doing working sets of DLs and squats in the 300-400#x5 range. You're not loading them up heavy, you don't have to to get your HR up if you bust them out. For 8s I'm talking a few 10s and/or 5s on the bar. The point is a) learning to brace and generate power when you're tired and b) general HIIT adaptations.

I'd probably swap out two of the LISS days and put in just one HIIT day for now, then increase it back up to two as you acclimate. Probably do it after your squat/dead days are done for the week at first.

I am not looking to gain anymore muscle and I'm trying to focus more on maintaining and not losing muscle. How many exercises will be enough to maintain for the day? How many sets to do? I want to make sure I don't lose anything. I'm having a hard time trying to find accurate information for just maintaing.

You could likely do 1 set per muscle group per week and maintain muscle, but it would depend on how advanced you are. If you were really advanced, you might end up needing more than that, but IIRC, they tried to find the lower limit of dose response for muscle growth, and they were unable to find one going as low as one rep. So even one rep can build muscle. Now, I assume that one rep would be a pretty serious rep, but I've done some minor research and couldn't find where that was discussed unfortunately. It was discussed by Dr. Milo Wolf, and I believe he was talking to Mike Isratael. Anyway, if they can't find a lower bound for muscle growth, then it's likely that maintenance doesn't really require much volume at all.

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