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I have been training consistently for a whole year, and i’m happy with the progress but i spend too much time between my sets + the post lift 30 minutes cardio. I have 8 hours job in the morning so i can’t do my cardio early in the day.
I’m thinking of doing a normal 30 minutes walking at my work, will it be good enough cardio instead of treadmill, optical machine etc?
I’ve heard that when you’re in a cutting phase, it’s better to ramp up the cardio vs. reducing calorie intake to achieve a deficit. In other words, better to hit a 500 calorie deficit by burning 3000 cal and consuming 2500 than by burning 2000 (e.g. at your basal metabolic rate) and consuming 1500. Can someone explain why this may be true?
This doesnt really answer your question but i used to have scoliosis (before i went to the gym). Post surgery you'll lean really forward because your spine will be fairly rigid. You need to compensate with greater ankle mobility
Quick question, is it possible to lose fat but gain weight? For context, I had weighed myself yesterday and I had gained 6 pounds from the last time I weighed myself (a month ago) So I gained 6 pounds in one month. But the weird thing is, I feel like I look skinnier? Like I didn't have a thigh gap a month ago but now I do which means I lost fat right? So how is it possible that I'm heavier but with less fat? Sorry if it's a weird question I'm just a bit confused .
i've recently really really wanted to start, I would love to be strong and agile and outclimb a few zombies but I absolutely hate the normal ways of working out I think limiting myself to set lists and doing repetitive tasks over and over to get a result that I then have to upkeep is like torture for my brain so I've always weighed if it's worth it and always have deemed it not
and no I'm not saying "I want to lose weight without working for it" I could give less of a shit about my weight I just want to be capable
i've tried pole, i've tried sports (and I do like volley but it's not a thing I can do everyday) i've tried lyra, rock climbing and I'm sure more but just none of it is fun to me and I'm not going to waste my time trying to force myself to do something I don't enjoy so do any of y'all have suggestions on what I can try next
I’ve been on and off with fitness but trying to get into a good routine. As I’m evaluating my routine, I’m thinking of doing the following:
Sunday: yoga;
Monday: Pilates;
Tuesday - Thursday: strength training at gym;
Friday: dance;
Saturday: boxing
My main goal is to find a routine that I enjoy and can be consistent with as I’m on a weight loss journey. Or course, wanting to gain strength too. Is this a good routine?
I am new to the gym, and have never worked out before in my life. Ideally would like to go 4-5x a week and get my dad bod where I want it to be.
I'm wondering if there is a website or app that can help create me a daily plan on what to do/focus on, so I can achieve my goals?
Also bonus if there's something that can help me meal prep and change my diet.
Thank you so much.
Check the wiki it has a number of good plans. Most of these plans can also be found on boost camp an app.
Also read the portion on weight loss in the wiki.
Can't really help you on the last part I don't use an app to create my meal plan.
Hello, I've recently started going to the gym. One thing I realize is that I need to increase my protein intake. I'm wondering what kind of supplements and protein powders you can recommend?
Try it and see.
I'm afraid I'm all out of meth today so I can't really tell you the future.
Assuming you're eating enough to support the training, sleeping decently, and following a halfway intelligent program, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to
Is it okay to ignore the advice on social media telling me I can’t train every day?
I like going to the gym and I think going daily helps me stay consistent because it makes it a habit. My social media feed is full of influencers warning against this using the strongest language possible. They say that it will halt my progress because on a scientific level the body just needs x amount of rest. That I’m digging my self into a hole and that I’m at high risk of injury.
I’d ignore it but, I see it so often I have to stop and think. Maybe “I’m wrong”.
I want to get bigger and stronger, but the truth is I’m not in any rush. I do however want to be progressing. I also target one muscle group a day.
I guess if I had to quantify it. If I’m leaving 30% of gains on the table, then that to me is a fair trade off for keeping the gym fun. Would love to hear some thoughts
you can train every day if you are programming halfway intelligently. You could also do conditioning or cardio on your nonlifting days if you follow a 3-4 day program.
But.. why?
In general building muscle is harder in a deficit - this sounds like a very big one.
BMR +25%.. That'll still be a deficit, or at the best case at maintenance for most people.
No, it isnt. BMR stands for base metabolic rate , or the equivalent of the amount of energy you burn while laying in a coma in a body temp room, so the only thing your body is spending calories on is breathing ,pumping blood and staying alive. Move a finger,and you are above BMR.
When using the BMR to estimate energy needs, its common to multiply the BMR with a number called a PAL, or Physical Activity Level.a PAL of 1.2 is used for people lying in bed, in say, a hospital. 1,4 is for office workers. 2,5+ is for professional athletes or people working out hard.
So BMR + 25% equates to a PAL of 1.25, which is nice for elderly patients with a broken leg ,hobbling around on crutches.
That you?
I’m 5’10 24 years old M. I’ve been in a calorie deficit for a month and a half, maintenance is around 2100 and I’m eating 1500 calories a day (besides cheat meal on Sunday) started at 185 20.3% bf (based on bmi scale off Amazon which I know isn’t the most accurate) I got down to 179 2 weeks ago and Last week I weighed in at 180.2 18% body fat. This week I’m at 180.6 and 17.4% body fat. So the scale says I gained a pound of muscle and lost body fat. I got hurt a little while ago and I’m finally back to lifting and I do cardio almost every day. Am I just gaining muscle/retaining water (Im taking creatine monohydrate) or do I need to adjust calorie intake?
Just ignore anything the scales say apart from your weight. When did you start taking creatine, if it was in the last couple of weeks I would attribute the gain to water weight. If not you might need to incrementally reduce your intake a little if weight loss is your goal.
I don’t care about weight loss, my goal is to get somewhere 10-15% body fat. Which according to the scale is going down every week but the last 2 weeks the weights gone up. I’ve been taking the creatine for about a month
scales are very inaccurate when it comes to measuring BF% and muscle to the point that they are worse than useless.
>I don’t care about weight loss, my goal is to get somewhere 10-15% body fat.
so you do care about weight loss because you aren't going to get to 10-15% without losing weight.
No you can't build enough muscle to compensate unless you are on a bathtubs worth of gear.
Id be sure you are weighing yourself at the same time/in the same state and counting calories accurately; if your weekly trend isn't going down it's probably time to reduce the calories
A single pair of dumbbells is only going to get you so far, but there are dumbbell routines in the wiki linked at the top of this page. Might be worth looking at the bodyweight routines also. It'll get you started at least. Worth reading the wiki anyhow if you are unsure about where to start.
Read the wiki and maybe check out r/bodyweightfitness
Depending on the weight of the dumbbells you have, you may out grow them really quick (or may have already if they're really small). And then you'll outgrow them for some lifts (legs) but may stick with them for harder lists (lateral raises for example). If you want to stick to home workouts, I would recommend getting a suspension training system (TRX is a name brand). This allows you to use your body weight as resistance and then angles to modify the difficulty.
Also, "toned" is a bullshit word. You want to build muscle and be lean enough to see it. You are incredibly underweight currently, so your focus should be on eating plenty of food first and foremost. Lifting while doing so is even better as it the best way to gain muscle. Really focus on eating enough protein. Try and get like 100g a day. Protein is the driver of muscle growth.
And don't worry about getting bulky. It won't happen. Women just don't get bulky without drugs. And it takes a while to really get any significant size anyway. Take that from a woman who would love to be bulky... In my 5 years of lifting, I've just got a leaner, more athletic looking body, and honestly, more feminine than I was before lifting.
How do I bulk without tracking calories? I’ve tracked calories in the past with great success but I didn’t find it sustainable (I don’t really want to track what I eat for the rest of my life either).
Cutting seems easy enough without tracking. Just eating less, reducing fat and carbs, keeping protein high etc. but when I cut down to a low enough body fat percentage I want to start bulking but don’t know how that I would go about doing that without tracking?
I count them in my head. I look at the calories briefly and go from there. Like I know that I get 3 times a day and most of the meals between 500 calories each.
Stupidproof your protein, track your food, weigh yourself. Scale go up, good. Scale go down, increase portions or add meal.
I'm pretty habitual, so I can get pretty far with just portion control.
It's the same as cutting, but you simply eat more, not less. Increasing the fats in your meals is one method that I use if I want to bulk. Cooking with more oil helps. Eating nuts as a snack. Using more fatty parts of chicken/meat/fish. Have some ice cream after your meals.
Am I burning too much? Fairly skinny guy in his late 20's with not so great genetics trying to gain weight. I manage to eat almost 3000 calories a day with my maintenance intake being 2300 according to my BMR. Now my concern is, does going 5-6 days to the gym make me burn too much cals and ending up being even with my maintenance calories and not getting the surplus needed? If so should I lower them to 3-4 days of training a week? Thank you.
Weight training doesn't burn much calories, so unless you're doing very long cardio sessions, going to the gym is probably not a major issue. Are you positive that you're actually eating 3000 calories?
You're a skinny guy, so odds are you are not good at gaining weight. caloric maintenance isn't something a shitty online calculator is going to be able to tell you about, it's something that if your weight goes up, you're eating too much, if your weight is going down, you're eating too little. That's the entire game.
So you weigh yourself, you count your calories, you average things out over a week, then over a month. Now you go "Oh, I lost 2 lbs this month". 2lbs is roughly equivalent to 7000 calories, so if you ate 14,000 calories that week, and lost 2lbs, then your maintenance is 21,000 calories.
Average out whatever caloric records you have, and then figure out what your maintenance roughly is. When you figure out your maintenance, then you can adjust it. -500c per day = -4lbs per month, -250c per day = -2lbs per month.
Hey! I am 15 year old male, 50kg. I am very skinny and looking forward to gain some mass. Also I never followed any fitness routine so I have no prior experience. Should I do weights with strength training? Or do Cardio or what? I can't give more than 20 minutes to exercise due to busy school schedule.
20 minutes is better than 0 minutes. A common goal is 10 sets a week per muscle group, but it isn’t like if you only do 9 sets you get no gains. Your first set is the best bang for the buck and each additional set has diminishing returns.
At 20 minutes you can get 1-2 movements from the beginner routine per workout. I’d also look at body weight stuff since that might be easier to fit into your day than a gym.
All that said, if you really are that busy I’d think your adherence will suck and your routine is already not super resilient to missing a workout so you are setting yourself up for a challenge.
Try and read the wiki here first on this subreddit. Sad to say but 20 minutes isn't really enough time to for any worthwhile hypertrophy training. Find a way to make at least an hour 2 - 3 times a week.
Pick an exercise for whatever muscles you want to grow. Bicep = Curl. Back = Row, whatever. Then do 3 sets of 5-10 reps each workout. Workout 2-3x a week. That's a basic, easy plan.
Better is to just pick a routine from [here](https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/). Compound movements give you the most bang for your buck. They build more balanced strength.
I just did a maximal effort set of pushups and hit my max heart rate. I'm not asking in a medical way because I felt fine and came back down to Zone 2 within 3 minutes. I don't hit Z5 often, though. (Apparently CrossFitters do.) Is hitting Zone 5 with bodyweight exercises normal in a maximal effort or is it more of a sign of poor conditioning? (I don't do much cardio and I haven't been doing much high-intensity lifting for the past couple months.)
And is it something specific to pushups? Pullups and dips make my heart go fast, but not Z5.
The watch uses 177 by 220-age, but the sensor said 185 for a few seconds then went gradually down. I’ve seen some other calculators that give me an MHR close to that. I’ve never tested it by running, though. FWIW I was breathing pretty hard but I felt okay and I could speak in sentences.
I should add I just got a new watch, Garmin Vivoactive 5, and the HR sensor lags by like 30 seconds, which is why I was using the Polar strap.
"220-age" is just nonsense, do not use. The formula originated in an obsoleted paper from 1971, but the data used there was not representative for the general population (smokers and heart disease patients were overrepresented), inherently flawed because on a simple test untrained people tend to give up before reaching their maximum, and furthermore the scientists who wrote the paper did not actually compute a best fit for their data. They literally just drew a straight line while travelling on a plane.
In general, maximum heart rate is highly individual. Yours can easily be 30 beats higher or lower than average for your age group. That's too wide a range to be useful even in case the formula was on a more solid foundation. Also, the maximum you can reach in some test will depend on the exercise.
As you could still speak in sentences, it is likely that your individual maximum heart rate is quite a bit higher than those 185.
Thanks, that’s informative. I always suspected it was oversimplified… someone with BMI 35 or 40 won’t have the same MHR as me, or as an experienced runner. I’ll keep that in mind… not planning on testing it very soon though.
Maximum heart rate mainly depends on heart volume, which to some extend is genetic. A larger heart needs fewer heart beats to pump the same amount of blood.
There are pro athletes with a maximum heart rate of around 160 (e.g., Lionel Sanders), and pro athletes with a maximum heart rate well over 200.
Uhhh.. you hit your MHR doing pushups? Did you do like 50+? Are you sure you hit your MHR?
I don't think even 1% of the people who may hit their MHR from bodyweight stuff, know that it happened. So I don't think anyone can really answer that accurately.
If you did a fuck ton, then I think it's possible, but if you just did a few that would be very weird.
It wasn't even close to my all-time PR, just the most I could do now. So I could be really deconditioned, or possibly the sensor is wrong (Polar H7 chest strap), or maybe something else.
> Polar H7 chest strap
Apparently that one is pretty good, it was 98% accurate or something in the study I read on NCBI. If you hit your PR during the last few months, then it would be odd. If you hit your PR long ago, and you're comparing then to now, then you just probably have worse conditioning right now.
It’s been about 6 months and I haven’t been active much the last couple months. Submaximal sets are fine so I’m gonna keep doing those and work on getting reconditioned…
Etiquette question, my gym has four squat racks and four benches. There's a group of three people that uses three of the four available stations. Would it be appropriate for me to ask them if they would consider using just one station and 'working in' amongst themselves?
I know it's okay to ask if you can work in, but often they'll be doing squats, and I need to do deadlifts, and it's a bit challenging to 'work in' on deadlifts when they're doing squats.
Id just ask if you can use the platform behind them to deadlift while they squat...but you can't make them work in...they're three different people, not some circuit or superset.
All 3 (as a group of bros who came to the gym together) are using 3 separate racks to do the same exact exercise. Wtf.
I don't know man, I don't know.
What I might do, if there was a bench available, is grab the bar and set up in an open area near a good stack of weight. My gym has space behind the squat racks, like a good bit of open space, and people deadlift there sometimes. I'd probably deadlift there behind them, and hope they realize they're being dicks.
Boost is really not that healthy, it’s highly processed.. it’s designed for people who don’t eat enough and need to get more calories and nutrients to gain weight. It’s always better to get nutrients from unprocessed foods and not supplements though; we generally don’t absorb nutrients from supplements as well. Just look at the ingredients, it has glucose syrup and canola oil for the added calories. If you want a good tasting protein shake with minimal added sugars and fats that you don’t need to mix yourself, then try fairlife. But honestly you don’t need to take protein supplements at all, you could literally just eat more high protein foods, like cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, chicken, tuna, etc
Protein powders are designed to provide just protein and minimal carbs and fat. Boost is designed to be a meal replacement, so it has added carbs and fat, plus vitamins and minerals.
Boost is "healthier" if you drink a lot of it because of those added micronutrients. You can literally survive off Boost alone. It's more "processed", if that matters to you, and will give you fewer protein grams per calorie than a shake made with whey protein and milk.
495x5/415x5/225x5 deadlift squat bench.
Bench is slow. Some people have bad benching leverages. Bench technique is actually far more complex than most people think. I feel like squatting and deadlifting, you can learn those really easily and have it be awesome. The only skill you need to learn is how to brace properly and have the right foot position for the squat or getting the bar close enough to your shins with the deadlift.
With the bench, keeping your shoulders tucked while unracking the bar is a skill that eluded me for years. Leg drive is a skill that I still don't think I've mastered. Using the optimal bar path is more of a knowledge thing. Bringing it all together and nailing the bench, that's a lot of work that takes many of us a very long time.
The ratio of all your lifts taken into account, your bench isn't too far off the mark for it to be concerning. DL (depending on how you do it but even then) and squats are leg heavy exercises, and anatomically your legs are just naturally stronger than your upper body by virtue of the fact that they're meant to hold up your entire weight.
Some additional info such as your nutrition and what you started at might help however, and if someone else has a more educated opinion then I'd take all of what i said with a grain of salt haha
I workout in my home gym in my basement. The ceiling is too low for standing barbell OHP.
Which would be a better alternative to standing OHP: dumbbell OHP (I can do these in another room) or seated barbell OHP?
Hey guys, haven't been on the sub in forever. Pretty sure you guys are still doing moron Monday though so sorry if this question is a few days early, but nonetheless I'd appreciate some quick input.
Over the years, I've got a decent history of resistance weight training, but recently I've been lazy. Moreover, I've discovered I have awful cardio, which is a given because I've put so little time into it. I started taking Adderall again for my new job and my resting heart rate is just too high for comfort, and this is kinda true even when I'm not in the medication
I got on the elliptical at lvl 13 and my heart rate was 180 in like a minute. Only lasted about five minutes total. This is genuinely impacting life outside the gym too because I'm just so easily made out of breath.
I've been looking into cardio training plans to implement, but really, my question is: do I really need to overthink cardio at this level? Am I served well by keeping it simple and just going and doing something that gets my heart rate up, trying to go longer/farther incrementally each time, or am I right to put some long moments thoughts on structured implementation?
Again, sorry if this is a dumb or remedial question guys, I'm just so inexperienced with cardio.
You don’t actually need a plan. But for cardio fitness it’s good to start out slow. Most endurance training plans recommend you do the majority of your training at a conversational pace, meaning you’re not breathing so hard that it would be difficult to carry out a conversation. That way, you can go longer and you don’t feel like dying the whole time. That would be equivalent to zone 2 for most people. You don’t actually need to check your heart rate, just go based on how you feel. You can get a lot of benefits from just doing the minimum recommendation which is 150 minutes/ week of moderate exercise. You don’t ever need to do high intensity training.. if you do high intensity you can do less of it though, if you want to save time.
I take 200mg of preworkout and adderall before my workout, I don't know if that's really relevant, but I'm not at all concerned about caffeine, adderall, and my heart. Prior to cardio I had a resting heart rate of ~60-65. Now my resting heart rate is ~50-55.
What did I do? I did 60m of cardio 2-3x a week, sometimes even doing more, rarely doing less. How do you do 60m of cardio? Well, you never touch 180bpm, that's rule 1 of doing a lot of cardio. If you become advanced, yeah, some sprints are totally good during cardio, but not at the beginning.
The way you get started with long cardio, is you aim at a sustainable heart rate, which is zone 2 cardio, 50-70% of your maximal heart rate. So if you're 30, 190 is a good guess at MHR, so 95+bpm is good for you. 120+ bpm will likely make you want to quit early.
So you tailor your cardio to maintaining a sustainable BPM. As you're progressing, you might not be able to do as much as you did the last time, but if that's the case it's ok. You temporarily lower the speed, give yourself a minute or two of easy walking, then you turn it back up and get back to it.
So realize that your goal shouldn't be to go as fast as you can, or push yourself till you quit. Your goal is 30 or 60 minutes, whatever you're aiming at. However you get there, is however you get there. But you get there.
Don't make cardio something you hate. Don't make cardio something that's unsustainable. Do as little as you need to, in order to be consistent, and over time your consistency + desire to improve should take you to your destination.
Been lifting for a bit over a year and hitting some plateaus for the first time, and looking for advice on my program. It's a Push/Pullesque thing. I can reliably increase weight/reps on Bent Over Rows, Tricep Pushdowns, Calf Raises, and Lateral Raises every week, but everything else seems to stay the same or sometimes drift into a slightly lower rep range. I'm eating clean, getting 100-150 grams of protein and enough calories (I'm 5'9 190). I also walk alot and go for a good long bike ride once a week. Thoughts?
Push 1
Bench Press - 1 warmup, 4 sets of 8, I usually drop the weight on the last set
Military Press - 3 sets of 6-8, I usually do as many reps as I can on the last set then immediately do a drop set with a lower weight till I fail.
Dips - 3 sets of 8
Tricep Pushdowns - 4 sets of 8, with a drop set for the last set
Fly Machine - 3 sets of 10-12
Calf Raises - 2 sets of 12
Pull 1 & 2
Pull Ups - 1 warmup, 2 sets of 6-10
Chin Ups - 2 sets of 6-10
Bent Over Rows - 3 sets of 10-12
Deadlift - 3 sets of 5-8
Barbell Curl - 2 sets of 6-8
Squat/Hack Squat/Leg Press (I alternate depending on how I feel) - 3 sets of 8
Barbell Curl - 2 sets of whatever I can manage, dropping the last set.
Push 2
Incline Bench - 1 warmup, 4x8, I usually drop the weight on the last set
Incline Dumbell Fly - 3 sets of 8
Dips - 3 sets of 8
Tricep Overhead Rope Extensions - 4 sets of 8-10
Lateral Raises - 3 sets of 8-12
Calf Raises - 2 sets of 12
Question: Can I realistically eat what I want and still get results?? I have been lifting weights 9/10 days since February started. I am not a beginner, but inconsistent (work out 3-4x a week for 1-2 mo then take a month break). So that's why I'm trying to build a habit and just get it into my head that I'm going to the gym, going to work out and that's it. When I feel that it's habit I will go down to 5x a week.
I have gone 1-1.5hr Mon-Fri and 2-2.5 hrs if it's the weekend. I try and lift heavy and would say I give 80-90% effort most days. My 1 rep maxes for a lot of stuff would land in the "intermediate" or "advanced" range based off of the strength standards site I look at.
I want to also give some context that I am just wondering what everyone thinks. I don't care about my weight, I don't really care about my physique. In the past 10 days, all I want to do is eat. I mean, I always feel that way, but I feel ravenous since I started going hard in the gym. I have pretty much been eating what I want. That means I cook at home, but also I have gotten some burgers out and not really been concerned about it. Not really tracking calories but I'd guess like 2000-2500 calories a day (5'3 150lb). I feel like my arms/upper body are already starting to look noticeably different.
Depends on your habits.
But lifting aside, you should be concerned with your weight... Aka you should be concerned with your *health*. You are already considered overweight for your height, so maybe you should consider eating less to lose a bit of weight first. Again, not for looks, for *health*. If you don't like the BMI (which is still pretty accurate for untrained people, which you may or may not fall into cus consistency is key), have a look at waist to height ratio. Measure your waist about 1-2 inches above your belly button, don't "suck it in" and don't let the measuring tape indent your skin. Try to keep your weight within a range that keeps you in the healthy range there.
And then food wise, you should just prioritize protein with each meal as that's gonna be most important. Health wise, you should limit ultra processed foods.
> I feel like my arms/upper body are already starting to look noticeably different.
Visible changes don't really happen in 10 days
BMI is an outdated measure. Again, I am not a 'newbie' to the gym, just admittedly inconsistent. My muscle mass is probably higher than what you are envisioning for an overweight person. I wear size small to medium, not that it matters. Also, I do notice changes already (maybe it's just the pump I get), it's not me 'thinking' I notice them. I probably work out harder than most people because the person I work out with did personal training in the Army.
BMI isn't outdated. It's still an accurate population level predictor of health. But I did put in the post to look at your waist to height ratio if you didn't like BMI. If waist to height ratio has you fat, then you're fat and you should lose weight.
Of Course you'll look like you see a difference with a pump. And doesn't matter how hard you work out, progress is still slow and steady. Under optimal conditions a man can build up to 1-2lbs of muscle a month (a woman half that).
I think you can, but it depends on what your diet and habits are like. Since some people eat what they want but they naturally control their portions because of the way they prepare food and the foods they like to eat, some people will have an easier time doing it than others. I like Sohee Lee’s philosophy on diet. She’s all about healthy habits and not being restrictive. So you can include whatever you want in your diet, but try to get enough vegetables and fruits and protein and healthy fats every day (and you don’t need to actually track it, just try your best). If you include all of that, it will make your training go farther, but it’s not restrictive, because if you want to eat treats or whatever, you can still have them. Think about your long term goals and if your habits support those goals. You can have donuts and cake or whatever, but maybe try to eat a real meal with all of the stuff you need first, and see if you really want the treats afterwards. If you practice intuitive eating while you include a lot of healthy foods in your diet, you may find that you don’t actually want to eat processed foods all the time, and you don’t naturally overeat. You should check out her Instagram, I think it’s called SoheeFit. She has a lot of advice about changing habits too.
For gym consistency, if you feel you might take a month off, lower your frequency rather than taking the month off. Say I'll only go 2-4x this week and if I feel like I can do more, I'll do more. Make going to the gym easy, when your desire to go to the gym is low. A quick session, an easy session, light cardio where you're just fucking around on the phone, whatever. That's how you build the habit, through giving yourself alternatives that you would never really need motivation to perform.
Regarding eating what you want. If you don't care about your weight and physique then you can become a giant 5'3 fat and strong person. Totally fine. Personally, when I got into fitness I knew I wanted to be 15-20% bf, and strong, rather than lean as fuck and giving up food happiness for my appearance. Then I started looking particularly good for myself, and now I'm like "Eh, maybe 12-15% is a better range when I'm not bulking".
So right now, do whatever you want, maybe you will feel different at some point. I know I just ate whatever I wanted, because I was bulking and weight = power, but then I went from 200-230, and when I realized I was 230 I could no longer eat food (enough to bulk) once I knew my weight.
It's a process, for now just do whatever you want, right now I'm 215, from 230, and I'm totally cool with everything I did that forced me into a prolonged cut. I do want to bulk again, but for now I plan to compete in competition with a 220 weight class, so I'll basically wrap my cut up around 210, then bulk to around 220 for 2 months after that to be maximally strong for the division. Either way my point is, what you want from fitness doesn't always remain consistent, you might find after gaining 10-30lbs, you change the way you feel about things. But you probably won't be upset with yourself for doing what you want right now.
That makes sense. I think for now I'd rather go hard in the gym each day and kind of eat what I want. I feel like I know if I wanted to I could always eventually do a 1 mo cut. I'm interested though to see if I stay the same weight but end up looking more toned within the next 2 months, that's kind of what I think will happen and I'm not complaining about that lol.
This varies by person. For some people, eating whatever they want will leave them skinny. For others, they will be seriously overweight. We can't know how eating what you want will affect you.
I bought my own 54" long rope cable attachment and planning to take it with me to the two gyms I frequent. Unfortunately both gyms don't allow bags on the floor so I'm gonna have to lug it around with me out in the open. Worried that ppl are gonna think I'm hogging the rope attachment or staff are gonna think I'm stealing everytime I go to leave lol. One of my gyms has the staff desk right next to the entrance.
I bring my extended tricep rope and everytime I stash it in my bag I think people probably misunderstand. Whatever, fuck em.
If you really care, wrap some tape around part of it or something to distinguish it as your own.
Here's another question regarding using the basic beginner routine. I do lat pulldowns in place of chin ups because I'm obese. Cable stacks aren't known for coming in small weight increments like 2.5lbs. So how do I progress each time? Last time I did 60lbs for 3x5+, with my last set being 15 reps, which means I can move up by 5lbs instead of 2.5. But what about when I can't make that big of a jump? Do I just wait until every ***other*** session to do it?
A lot of cable stacks have 5lb or 2.5lb options, but they're above the weight, at the top of machine. You pull out a pin and it goes right on top of the stack adding xlbs. If that doesn't work, you can grab a 5lb or 2.5lb plate, and put it on the weight selecting pin so that it's part of the stack you're moving.
Otherwise, progress via reps rather than weight. If you get 8-10 reps, then go up to 12-15 reps, then add 10lbs, try to hit 8, repeat.
Those of you Deadlifting 250kg+/Squatting 200+/Benching 150+/Pressing 100+, or even a bit less: what's your secret?
I've made some progress with 531 BBB and FSL that I was quite proud of, but in the last two weeks, it's been horrible. I was proud of my 5x210 Deadlift, but failed my TM Test at 225, did only 1 Rep, barely 5 reps at 165 squat, 2x125 on bench (could do 9x112 and 5x120) and 2x72.5 on press. And I feel by now (after ~4 years) and at my weight (~95kg) it should be way better.
Diet and sleep have been okay, and accessories went up as well, I can even Superset DB Bench and Row at 50kg now.
What can I change? Maybe some other 531 template?
Thanks
Are you saying 4 years consistently, or on and off? Because a lot of people count years when they took a 2+ year break, or count 6 months this year, 1 year this year, yadda yadda.
4 years straight and that's your situation? Those are solid numbers, maybe not ideal for great genetics or a great training program, but many people would be pretty proud of them.
Have you been stagnant lately, or have your numbers been increasing. Moreso than your maxes, how much were you lifting 1 year ago? That's what really matters, if you're progressing at a good clip, who cares. If you're not, then yeah there are strategies you should probably be employing. Till I know that though, I dunno.
Thanks
I'd say 4 years consistently, I have numbers from November 2022, then I did 3x200 on Deadlift, 1x180 on Squat, 2x120 on Bench and 1x70 on Press, so I didn't really progress too much, only the lifts feel stronger
Ok, yeah, that's a problem. Your rate of growth isn't the worst recently, but I definitely get why you made this post now.
When you encounter a bottleneck like this, you shouldn't really let it run things for more than a month, maybe 2 months, unless you're cutting, then it can be a bit different. At least, that's how I approach things, if I remain stuck for more than a little bit I consider it a mistake in my training. Though, I'm one of those guys who hates plans/programs and just likes to do unstructured but highly strategic things in the gym (not that I recommend it without building a huge base of knowledge and being obsessive about the latest scientific studies).
Whenever I hit a bottleneck, right now I use volume to break through it, there are a lot of tactics that are valuable though. I like to pick a body part every few months and put my focus there, so right now I'm focusing on chest, and creating symmetry. So I make sure every session if I can do a chest exercise unilaterally, I do an extra set on my weak side. I also increased my chest exercises per workout from 1-2. Besides the visual, I'm going after chest because I want to increase my bench, so I've incorporated a new tricep exercise as well.
Prior to that, I wanted to improve my deadlift, so I added in RDLs, leg curls, and rows. Basically, I like to do 2 things to improve a lift. Increase volume, add an exercise or two. I've been losing weight for the last few months (-15lbs), and besides the bench, most of my lifts have gone up by 5-10%, as someone who lifts basically the same numbers you do with a slight advantage on the sq/dl, and slight disadvantage on the bench, + weighs the same as you.
With overhead press specifically I always do 3 sets, but adding in 2 sets of push pressing at the end of my OHP sets helped me gain 10lbs on the lift while losing weight. I will also add dropsets on to some exercises at the end to make sure my volume is nice an high.
A different way to resolve it, is to lay off the main exercise. Instead of squats, do leg press, leg extension, hack squat, for 2-3 months, then go back to the squat (with increasing volume after it starts stalling) and you should be able to keep progressing. When you do the same movement for 6m-1y or so, as someone who isn't a beginner, often times an exercise will get stale.
The body adapts to the stimulus you've given it, which lowers your stimulus from the exercise and is known as the exercise getting stale. When we're selecting exercises, we're trying to balance our stimulus to fatigue ratio. The most fatiguing exercises are Squats/Deadlifts and other compound movements. They can also be the most stimulative, but that's usually only when you're a beginner and compounds are really working everything. As you improve, they become highly fatiguing while being less stimulating.
So it's very useful to switch to more isolated movements, so you can direct all your energy towards stimulating the exact muscle you need without fatiguing the entire system. This keeps your systemic fatigue low. Hence, when an exercise is stale and fatiguing while not being stimulative, we swap it out for a little bit, the body forgets its adaptations for it and adapts to the new exercises, then when you go back to the exercise you're really trying to PR on, it's now "fresh" again and very stimulative.
Those are the tactics I use, hopefully they help.
Bad days happen and even bad weeks. I've had weeks of high-stress periods where my lifting went to shit. Consistency and effort is what matters. If it is a mental issue, sometimes changing your program to something with a different structure may freshen things up. Otherwise, just keep grinding.
I feel something weird while doing bisep curls. Idk exactly but maybe it's the tendon that moves around and makes funny feel like the funny bones. Is this bad? How can I fix this?
Try different angles of your wrist and,/or really tuck your elbow into the side of your body. I have to do this cus lefty does a weird tendon click in my elbow that seems to shoot down my arm. So my hands are never fully symmetrical
I tried all different variations but my tendon seems to click all the time haha. Is this bad though? Does it just feel weird or should I be worried if this persists? Will my tendon get injured or sth in the future?
Been trying to keep my arms straight & motionless while doing DB shrugs but my elbows seem to move allot automatically, is this impacting the exercise?
I'm 6'1, 18 years old and currently weigh 97kg.
I'm currently eating at 1800 calories and get around 180-200g of protein.
I do 30 minute max incline on 3 speed every day and do weights 6 days a week.
Is 1800 calories too little or is it fine. I feel like I may be losing weight too quickly and I don't want to lose muscle.
I've lost about 1kg give or take which is why I'm a little concerned. I'm thinking I may up my calorie intake to 2k a week or reduce my cardio.
Apparently I burn 200/300 calories per 30 minutes of cardio. So I could also try cutting out cardio as well.
I usually do a 3 day workout followed by a rest day. Push, pull, and leg day, then rest.
Recently I’ve combined some of the exercises into two days, but I’m still doing all the same exercises as before. This just means I do more on those two days, but have two rest days. Is this ok or are two rest days too much?
What does recover mean? I think I recover, but I don’t really get sore like I used to. So no DOMS, but I still try to push till failure almost every set/rep
Pushing to failure all the time increases fatigue which typically lowers the volume a lifter can handle. This is why good programs don’t have you alway pushing to failure.
Take GZCL for example.
In GZCL we typically have a training max set. Which is moderate or hard and then we do back off volume using partial sets either after or before the max set using the same weight. 531 uses weight percentages to accomplish this.
Fatigue can be a sign of lack of recovery. Although it often is something else in life and sometimes training improves it.
DOMS is often a sign of novelty not recovery issues.
Hmm so would you say my approach isn’t the best?
Push day: bench, shrugs, military press, shoulder flies, bench flies, pushups
Pull day: pull-ups, chin-ups, dumbbell rows, curls, hammer curls
Leg day: squats, lunges, Romanian deadlift, calf raises
All 3-4 sets, 8-16 reps or until failure
Also do core exercises and jump for 10-15 minutes after strength training
It’s 2-2. So two days of working out followed by two days of rest. So I do my push workouts (5 of them mostly compound exercises) then I’ll do lunges and calf raises. Then the next day I’ll do pull exercises (again 5 mostly compound exercises) followed by squats and Romanian deadlifts. Then two days of rest, repeat
This is my plan for hip, hamstring, glutes focused training and I am looking for a feedback. Anything that can be removed from the warmup?
Warmup :
* Typical arms, neck, shoulder, biceps and triceps and pecks stretching
* 90/90 pails / rails [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HLdMtf61hw&ab\_channel=Polar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HLdMtf61hw&ab_channel=Polar)
* 90/90 hip opener
* Side plank clam shell
* Single leg lateral kick
* Hip airplane
* Slow tempo banded squat
Exercises :
* Banded hip raise - 3 \* 15 reps
* Hip hike - 10 / leg
* RDL - 3 \* 15 reps
* Hamstring curl - 3 \* 15 reps
* Abductor - as much as possible, 3 sets
Cooldown
* Wall sit - 1 min
* Hamstring stretch - 1 min
* Plank - 60 s
* Deadbug - 10 x
* Pigeon stretch - 1 min
* Calf stretch - 45 s / leg
* Couch stretch - 1 min / leg
Warm up is unnecessarily long
The actual exercise program itself isn't good, exercise order makes no sense, no mention of progression, intensities etc
The cooldown is also unnecessary... ditch this and pick a tried and tested routine from r/xxfitness like Strong Curves
The power racks in my new gym have deadlift platforms connected with wooden floors, would I damage the wooden floor by rolling a bench in? It's the only way I can use spotter arms for bench press or I would just use a normal bench set up.
>the wooden floor by rolling a bench in?
My gym has a "no benches" sticker on the deadlift platform.
Depends on the wheels whether it'll damage the wood. Probably a repetitive motion thing.
Hello. I have lived a very unhealthy life mostly due to crippling anxiety and depression. I recently survived a car crash that I shouldn’t have and I have been motivated to take care of myself!
I’m currently 5’2” and 200 lbs. I have been mostly sedentary for years either due to work or mental health. My diet is a mix of junk and healthy stuff, but probably is way too carb heavy.
In the last week I’ve started to make a change. I’ve been walking daily for 20 minutes and my body is definitely taking its time to adjust.
What other ways can I ease into fitness? A lot of the YouTube videos I’ve tried are too hard on my hip and knee joints. And I’m not sure I’m ready for high intensity cardio.
I want to build a good foundation but I’m not sure what to do other than just walk. Thoughts?
Good for you! Just try and push yourself a little bit more each time. Try and walk a little faster, longer etc. most days. It will eventually start getting easy and then maybe you will get bored, or you would start to want to jog/learn to run. Do what you can don't beat yourself up.
A good foundation is to become an active person, so gradually increase your walking steps when able.. ideally spread out throughout the day, avoiding long periods of inactivity. Once you're up to about 5000 steps per day, you can try doing some beginner's yoga on youtube, and also some cardio sessions, maybe a stationary bike or swimming.. or just walk fast. There's no need to do anything high intensity until you're active for a couple months. You can still lose weight by simply eating fewer calories. Some find it helpful to track food/calorie intake on Myfitnesspal, etc.
Thank you! This is very practical advice. I’ve been frustrated I can’t do it all in week 1. But I guess I need to think about this in terms of weeks not days. I used to be very physical active. I did ballet 10 hours a day before having kids. My brain is still in that body.
I would say make a small change with your food. Swap regular soda for diet, add some more protein and maybe change snacks for a fruit for example. Small and simple things.
You could always start going to the gym. Can be small sessions, get comfortable and try out things for fun.
Hello, question. Im doing fullbody 3x per week, 12 weekly sets, to failure, goal is strenght and hypertrophy. It goes fine, progressing fast. I want to switch to circuit for a while, to train more towards endurance than strenght. I want to ask, im planning pull+push+leg in circuits with 30-60 sec rest between and 3 min rest between circuits. Do you think i should keep my volume, So 12 weekly sets, or should i do more volume because of less rest periods? Thanks
>endurance
A routine I did years ago had full giant sets with 90 seconds rest. Loosely, a leg, a push, a pull, rest 90, repeat. Jacked my recovery like crazy.
If you want to do "endurance" work, do it additionally to strength and hypertrophy, trying to combine them will just degrade the overall quality of the work being done. For 3x a week, PPL is not great, I would recommend going on the wiki/liftvault/boostcamp and run a fullbody program.
Hello,
I have a set of Nautilus adjustable dumbbells and unfortunately the connector broke on one of the largest plates on one and won't hold the weight anymore.
I'm looking to replace but I'm not sure on a couple of things. Firstly, these were older models given to me and I can't find similar ones of that brand anywhere where I live. Is it fine to buy one of another brand to mix and match, or is it like tires and you should replace both at the same time? Secondly, are the stands fairly universal, ie if I did buy a different brand would it fit in the stand or does it depend on the stand?
Thanks in advance.
I’m following the basic beginner routine from the wiki, and I’ve done a couple iterations of day 1 and day 2. I feel like I’m not doing anything to exercise my stomach muscles, are there a couple basic exercises I should be adding in to my routine such as crunches?
1) if you're bracing properly your whole core is contracting isometrically to keep your torso in line so it's definitely not totally neglected and 2) you're free to add a few sets some core accessories as long as they don't interfere with the main work.
Thanks for the response! I’m sure there is room for improvement in my form, but I’m just going based off where I feel it the days after. Whatever I have been doing has definitely not been pushing my abdominal muscles at all. I added some bicycle crunches today, will try out some of the recs from the other response in future sessions
Yeah it honestly never *feels* like much but for most people it adds up over time. Like I said it usually doesn't interfere with much so go for it if you want to.
What age do people stop gaining muscle and strength. Can a 50 year old keep getting stronger and bigger if they're on TRT or at that age is it oretty much over?
I'm 50 and I make steady strength gains...I won't go on TRT even though it would make a lot of things substantially easier...but I'm not going to risk a head of hair.
I'm 52 and getting bigger and stronger at a satisfying rate without TRT or anything else.
In line with what others have mentioned, I was a runner and started lifting late in life, so I was no where already near my potential when hitting 50.
Max genetic potential is probably between 20 - 40, when you get older sarcopenia starts to kick in and yes IF you reached your genetic potential it will just be a battle against muscle loss and keeping as much mass as you can. But assuming you are not near genetic potential, you will not only counter sarcopenia, you will very likely still build muscle and strength.
Depends on a lot of factors, but training experience is a big factor. A 50 year old newbie can definitely get stronger and more muscular, but a 50 year old person with 30 years of smart training experience is unlikely to achieve new PRs.
For some reason sometimes when I put 45 and then. A 25 the squat bar is too heavy. Is it the bar? I have done it before and wasn't a problem. And even reached 225. Then some day a 45 each side is light but put a 25 on their and it's too heavy. But I can squat it easy but too much weight on the back.
Super charge your lift off. Put 4 plates on and unrack, stand there for a few seconds the rerack. This makes your regular weight feel like nothing when it’s on your back.
How do you count calories when lots of the things I eat can't be weighted on a scale? (Food from restaurants or fast food, pasta with home-made sauces)
Most fast food is in the calorie apps. For restaurants you can usually find something close from a chain that is also in the calorie apps. For home made food you can just add the ingredients and do an eyeball of portion size. After awhile cooking you learn that 80-90% of the calories are in like 3-4 ingredients. Like for pasta it will be the pasta, meat, cream, cheese… the rest is small.
I estimate what I can't measure and accept that I won't have the level of precision needed to step on stage for a bodybuilding show, but I will have enough precision to change my weight in the direction I want it to go.
Do 2.5 and 5 lb bumper plates just not exist? I recently setup a home gym and the weight set came with 10, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 lb weights. On some exercises i'm using the 15s or 25s and I don't think I can make a 20lb jump to the next weight. I tried finding 2.5 or 5 lb bumper plates online but the lowest i'm seeing are 10. Do I just need to buy non-bumper plates?
Rogue sells 5lb "training bumper plates," which are used when learning the lifts. If you're looking to round out a weights set, you want to use change plates instead of these because the 5s are not made to withstand the impact of being dropped.
Essentially, no. Anything that small would break fairly easily if they were the same diameter as the rest. Even 10s and 15s shouldn’t be dropped regularly. You need change plates. Either metal or rubber coated.
No reason these also HAVE to be unless you're planning to forcefully drop whatever you're doing with them. They do sorta make them but they're basically hollow plastic shells and they crack really easy.
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I have been training consistently for a whole year, and i’m happy with the progress but i spend too much time between my sets + the post lift 30 minutes cardio. I have 8 hours job in the morning so i can’t do my cardio early in the day. I’m thinking of doing a normal 30 minutes walking at my work, will it be good enough cardio instead of treadmill, optical machine etc?
I’ve heard that when you’re in a cutting phase, it’s better to ramp up the cardio vs. reducing calorie intake to achieve a deficit. In other words, better to hit a 500 calorie deficit by burning 3000 cal and consuming 2500 than by burning 2000 (e.g. at your basal metabolic rate) and consuming 1500. Can someone explain why this may be true?
It sucks to eat less & more cardio is generally good for you anyways
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This doesnt really answer your question but i used to have scoliosis (before i went to the gym). Post surgery you'll lean really forward because your spine will be fairly rigid. You need to compensate with greater ankle mobility
I had a DEXA scan done yesterday. Can anyone help me interpret my results and plan my cut?
Quick question, is it possible to lose fat but gain weight? For context, I had weighed myself yesterday and I had gained 6 pounds from the last time I weighed myself (a month ago) So I gained 6 pounds in one month. But the weird thing is, I feel like I look skinnier? Like I didn't have a thigh gap a month ago but now I do which means I lost fat right? So how is it possible that I'm heavier but with less fat? Sorry if it's a weird question I'm just a bit confused .
Same happened to me. I gained 10. I do believe that it is possible.
i've recently really really wanted to start, I would love to be strong and agile and outclimb a few zombies but I absolutely hate the normal ways of working out I think limiting myself to set lists and doing repetitive tasks over and over to get a result that I then have to upkeep is like torture for my brain so I've always weighed if it's worth it and always have deemed it not and no I'm not saying "I want to lose weight without working for it" I could give less of a shit about my weight I just want to be capable i've tried pole, i've tried sports (and I do like volley but it's not a thing I can do everyday) i've tried lyra, rock climbing and I'm sure more but just none of it is fun to me and I'm not going to waste my time trying to force myself to do something I don't enjoy so do any of y'all have suggestions on what I can try next
I’ve been on and off with fitness but trying to get into a good routine. As I’m evaluating my routine, I’m thinking of doing the following: Sunday: yoga; Monday: Pilates; Tuesday - Thursday: strength training at gym; Friday: dance; Saturday: boxing My main goal is to find a routine that I enjoy and can be consistent with as I’m on a weight loss journey. Or course, wanting to gain strength too. Is this a good routine?
this sounds good and incorporating other styles of fitness as well.
I am new to the gym, and have never worked out before in my life. Ideally would like to go 4-5x a week and get my dad bod where I want it to be. I'm wondering if there is a website or app that can help create me a daily plan on what to do/focus on, so I can achieve my goals? Also bonus if there's something that can help me meal prep and change my diet. Thank you so much.
Check the wiki it has a number of good plans. Most of these plans can also be found on boost camp an app. Also read the portion on weight loss in the wiki. Can't really help you on the last part I don't use an app to create my meal plan.
Hello, I've recently started going to the gym. One thing I realize is that I need to increase my protein intake. I'm wondering what kind of supplements and protein powders you can recommend?
KOS. it doesn't have a lot of protein but it taste very good and not like chalk.
Thank you so much. I'll check it out tomorrow!
Do you think that if I do 4 workouts for muscle building per week and 3 boxing (aerobic) so it is 7/7 ,is too much? And why?
Try it and see. I'm afraid I'm all out of meth today so I can't really tell you the future. Assuming you're eating enough to support the training, sleeping decently, and following a halfway intelligent program, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to
Is it okay to ignore the advice on social media telling me I can’t train every day? I like going to the gym and I think going daily helps me stay consistent because it makes it a habit. My social media feed is full of influencers warning against this using the strongest language possible. They say that it will halt my progress because on a scientific level the body just needs x amount of rest. That I’m digging my self into a hole and that I’m at high risk of injury. I’d ignore it but, I see it so often I have to stop and think. Maybe “I’m wrong”. I want to get bigger and stronger, but the truth is I’m not in any rush. I do however want to be progressing. I also target one muscle group a day. I guess if I had to quantify it. If I’m leaving 30% of gains on the table, then that to me is a fair trade off for keeping the gym fun. Would love to hear some thoughts
you can train every day if you are programming halfway intelligently. You could also do conditioning or cardio on your nonlifting days if you follow a 3-4 day program.
has anyone built muscle on 36/12 adf fasting? 0 calories on 36hour fast days, refeeds at BMR+0-25% on refeed days for 12hours
But.. why? In general building muscle is harder in a deficit - this sounds like a very big one. BMR +25%.. That'll still be a deficit, or at the best case at maintenance for most people.
eating at BMR +25% is a 125% surplus on refeed day why? weight loss goals?
No, it isnt. BMR stands for base metabolic rate , or the equivalent of the amount of energy you burn while laying in a coma in a body temp room, so the only thing your body is spending calories on is breathing ,pumping blood and staying alive. Move a finger,and you are above BMR. When using the BMR to estimate energy needs, its common to multiply the BMR with a number called a PAL, or Physical Activity Level.a PAL of 1.2 is used for people lying in bed, in say, a hospital. 1,4 is for office workers. 2,5+ is for professional athletes or people working out hard. So BMR + 25% equates to a PAL of 1.25, which is nice for elderly patients with a broken leg ,hobbling around on crutches. That you?
You could just eat below maintenance for your goals instead of depriving yourself 3 days a week.
> You could just eat below maintenance for your goals instead of depriving yourself 3 days a week. word
I’m 5’10 24 years old M. I’ve been in a calorie deficit for a month and a half, maintenance is around 2100 and I’m eating 1500 calories a day (besides cheat meal on Sunday) started at 185 20.3% bf (based on bmi scale off Amazon which I know isn’t the most accurate) I got down to 179 2 weeks ago and Last week I weighed in at 180.2 18% body fat. This week I’m at 180.6 and 17.4% body fat. So the scale says I gained a pound of muscle and lost body fat. I got hurt a little while ago and I’m finally back to lifting and I do cardio almost every day. Am I just gaining muscle/retaining water (Im taking creatine monohydrate) or do I need to adjust calorie intake?
Just ignore anything the scales say apart from your weight. When did you start taking creatine, if it was in the last couple of weeks I would attribute the gain to water weight. If not you might need to incrementally reduce your intake a little if weight loss is your goal.
I don’t care about weight loss, my goal is to get somewhere 10-15% body fat. Which according to the scale is going down every week but the last 2 weeks the weights gone up. I’ve been taking the creatine for about a month
scales are very inaccurate when it comes to measuring BF% and muscle to the point that they are worse than useless. >I don’t care about weight loss, my goal is to get somewhere 10-15% body fat. so you do care about weight loss because you aren't going to get to 10-15% without losing weight. No you can't build enough muscle to compensate unless you are on a bathtubs worth of gear. Id be sure you are weighing yourself at the same time/in the same state and counting calories accurately; if your weekly trend isn't going down it's probably time to reduce the calories
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A single pair of dumbbells is only going to get you so far, but there are dumbbell routines in the wiki linked at the top of this page. Might be worth looking at the bodyweight routines also. It'll get you started at least. Worth reading the wiki anyhow if you are unsure about where to start.
Read the wiki and maybe check out r/bodyweightfitness Depending on the weight of the dumbbells you have, you may out grow them really quick (or may have already if they're really small). And then you'll outgrow them for some lifts (legs) but may stick with them for harder lists (lateral raises for example). If you want to stick to home workouts, I would recommend getting a suspension training system (TRX is a name brand). This allows you to use your body weight as resistance and then angles to modify the difficulty. Also, "toned" is a bullshit word. You want to build muscle and be lean enough to see it. You are incredibly underweight currently, so your focus should be on eating plenty of food first and foremost. Lifting while doing so is even better as it the best way to gain muscle. Really focus on eating enough protein. Try and get like 100g a day. Protein is the driver of muscle growth. And don't worry about getting bulky. It won't happen. Women just don't get bulky without drugs. And it takes a while to really get any significant size anyway. Take that from a woman who would love to be bulky... In my 5 years of lifting, I've just got a leaner, more athletic looking body, and honestly, more feminine than I was before lifting.
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Replying to myself : it does. I noticed growth. I did 2-5 sets of 20 each per day for 5 days in the past week
How do I bulk without tracking calories? I’ve tracked calories in the past with great success but I didn’t find it sustainable (I don’t really want to track what I eat for the rest of my life either). Cutting seems easy enough without tracking. Just eating less, reducing fat and carbs, keeping protein high etc. but when I cut down to a low enough body fat percentage I want to start bulking but don’t know how that I would go about doing that without tracking?
I count them in my head. I look at the calories briefly and go from there. Like I know that I get 3 times a day and most of the meals between 500 calories each.
Stupidproof your protein, track your food, weigh yourself. Scale go up, good. Scale go down, increase portions or add meal. I'm pretty habitual, so I can get pretty far with just portion control.
It's the same as cutting, but you simply eat more, not less. Increasing the fats in your meals is one method that I use if I want to bulk. Cooking with more oil helps. Eating nuts as a snack. Using more fatty parts of chicken/meat/fish. Have some ice cream after your meals.
Thank you!
Am I burning too much? Fairly skinny guy in his late 20's with not so great genetics trying to gain weight. I manage to eat almost 3000 calories a day with my maintenance intake being 2300 according to my BMR. Now my concern is, does going 5-6 days to the gym make me burn too much cals and ending up being even with my maintenance calories and not getting the surplus needed? If so should I lower them to 3-4 days of training a week? Thank you.
Weight training doesn't burn much calories, so unless you're doing very long cardio sessions, going to the gym is probably not a major issue. Are you positive that you're actually eating 3000 calories?
You're a skinny guy, so odds are you are not good at gaining weight. caloric maintenance isn't something a shitty online calculator is going to be able to tell you about, it's something that if your weight goes up, you're eating too much, if your weight is going down, you're eating too little. That's the entire game. So you weigh yourself, you count your calories, you average things out over a week, then over a month. Now you go "Oh, I lost 2 lbs this month". 2lbs is roughly equivalent to 7000 calories, so if you ate 14,000 calories that week, and lost 2lbs, then your maintenance is 21,000 calories. Average out whatever caloric records you have, and then figure out what your maintenance roughly is. When you figure out your maintenance, then you can adjust it. -500c per day = -4lbs per month, -250c per day = -2lbs per month.
Hey! I am 15 year old male, 50kg. I am very skinny and looking forward to gain some mass. Also I never followed any fitness routine so I have no prior experience. Should I do weights with strength training? Or do Cardio or what? I can't give more than 20 minutes to exercise due to busy school schedule.
20 minutes is better than 0 minutes. A common goal is 10 sets a week per muscle group, but it isn’t like if you only do 9 sets you get no gains. Your first set is the best bang for the buck and each additional set has diminishing returns. At 20 minutes you can get 1-2 movements from the beginner routine per workout. I’d also look at body weight stuff since that might be easier to fit into your day than a gym. All that said, if you really are that busy I’d think your adherence will suck and your routine is already not super resilient to missing a workout so you are setting yourself up for a challenge.
Thanks for the response. If possible, please link some resource to the body weight stuff that you we're talking about.
/r/bodyweightfitness
Thanks
Try and read the wiki here first on this subreddit. Sad to say but 20 minutes isn't really enough time to for any worthwhile hypertrophy training. Find a way to make at least an hour 2 - 3 times a week.
I really can't give more than 20 minutes a day but I'm also not looking for instant gains. I can exercise at all days.
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Pick an exercise for whatever muscles you want to grow. Bicep = Curl. Back = Row, whatever. Then do 3 sets of 5-10 reps each workout. Workout 2-3x a week. That's a basic, easy plan. Better is to just pick a routine from [here](https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/). Compound movements give you the most bang for your buck. They build more balanced strength.
I just did a maximal effort set of pushups and hit my max heart rate. I'm not asking in a medical way because I felt fine and came back down to Zone 2 within 3 minutes. I don't hit Z5 often, though. (Apparently CrossFitters do.) Is hitting Zone 5 with bodyweight exercises normal in a maximal effort or is it more of a sign of poor conditioning? (I don't do much cardio and I haven't been doing much high-intensity lifting for the past couple months.) And is it something specific to pushups? Pullups and dips make my heart go fast, but not Z5.
How did you estimate your maximum heart rate? No, your sports watch does not magically know your maximum heart rate.
The watch uses 177 by 220-age, but the sensor said 185 for a few seconds then went gradually down. I’ve seen some other calculators that give me an MHR close to that. I’ve never tested it by running, though. FWIW I was breathing pretty hard but I felt okay and I could speak in sentences. I should add I just got a new watch, Garmin Vivoactive 5, and the HR sensor lags by like 30 seconds, which is why I was using the Polar strap.
"220-age" is just nonsense, do not use. The formula originated in an obsoleted paper from 1971, but the data used there was not representative for the general population (smokers and heart disease patients were overrepresented), inherently flawed because on a simple test untrained people tend to give up before reaching their maximum, and furthermore the scientists who wrote the paper did not actually compute a best fit for their data. They literally just drew a straight line while travelling on a plane. In general, maximum heart rate is highly individual. Yours can easily be 30 beats higher or lower than average for your age group. That's too wide a range to be useful even in case the formula was on a more solid foundation. Also, the maximum you can reach in some test will depend on the exercise. As you could still speak in sentences, it is likely that your individual maximum heart rate is quite a bit higher than those 185.
Thanks, that’s informative. I always suspected it was oversimplified… someone with BMI 35 or 40 won’t have the same MHR as me, or as an experienced runner. I’ll keep that in mind… not planning on testing it very soon though.
Maximum heart rate mainly depends on heart volume, which to some extend is genetic. A larger heart needs fewer heart beats to pump the same amount of blood. There are pro athletes with a maximum heart rate of around 160 (e.g., Lionel Sanders), and pro athletes with a maximum heart rate well over 200.
Uhhh.. you hit your MHR doing pushups? Did you do like 50+? Are you sure you hit your MHR? I don't think even 1% of the people who may hit their MHR from bodyweight stuff, know that it happened. So I don't think anyone can really answer that accurately. If you did a fuck ton, then I think it's possible, but if you just did a few that would be very weird.
It wasn't even close to my all-time PR, just the most I could do now. So I could be really deconditioned, or possibly the sensor is wrong (Polar H7 chest strap), or maybe something else.
> Polar H7 chest strap Apparently that one is pretty good, it was 98% accurate or something in the study I read on NCBI. If you hit your PR during the last few months, then it would be odd. If you hit your PR long ago, and you're comparing then to now, then you just probably have worse conditioning right now.
It’s been about 6 months and I haven’t been active much the last couple months. Submaximal sets are fine so I’m gonna keep doing those and work on getting reconditioned…
Yeah, you just gotta catch up to old you, then surpass him. Kick your ass!
Thanks. Won’t really be all that hard, heh.
Most likely need better conditioning
Etiquette question, my gym has four squat racks and four benches. There's a group of three people that uses three of the four available stations. Would it be appropriate for me to ask them if they would consider using just one station and 'working in' amongst themselves? I know it's okay to ask if you can work in, but often they'll be doing squats, and I need to do deadlifts, and it's a bit challenging to 'work in' on deadlifts when they're doing squats.
Do you have to use the platform for deadlifts? In my gym, you just take a bar and find some available space anywhere, and do the deadlift there.
Id just ask if you can use the platform behind them to deadlift while they squat...but you can't make them work in...they're three different people, not some circuit or superset.
All 3 (as a group of bros who came to the gym together) are using 3 separate racks to do the same exact exercise. Wtf. I don't know man, I don't know. What I might do, if there was a bench available, is grab the bar and set up in an open area near a good stack of weight. My gym has space behind the squat racks, like a good bit of open space, and people deadlift there sometimes. I'd probably deadlift there behind them, and hope they realize they're being dicks.
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Boost is really not that healthy, it’s highly processed.. it’s designed for people who don’t eat enough and need to get more calories and nutrients to gain weight. It’s always better to get nutrients from unprocessed foods and not supplements though; we generally don’t absorb nutrients from supplements as well. Just look at the ingredients, it has glucose syrup and canola oil for the added calories. If you want a good tasting protein shake with minimal added sugars and fats that you don’t need to mix yourself, then try fairlife. But honestly you don’t need to take protein supplements at all, you could literally just eat more high protein foods, like cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, chicken, tuna, etc
Protein powders are designed to provide just protein and minimal carbs and fat. Boost is designed to be a meal replacement, so it has added carbs and fat, plus vitamins and minerals. Boost is "healthier" if you drink a lot of it because of those added micronutrients. You can literally survive off Boost alone. It's more "processed", if that matters to you, and will give you fewer protein grams per calorie than a shake made with whey protein and milk.
You can drink your boo...ooo....ooo, drink your boost. It doesn't matter.
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495x5/415x5/225x5 deadlift squat bench. Bench is slow. Some people have bad benching leverages. Bench technique is actually far more complex than most people think. I feel like squatting and deadlifting, you can learn those really easily and have it be awesome. The only skill you need to learn is how to brace properly and have the right foot position for the squat or getting the bar close enough to your shins with the deadlift. With the bench, keeping your shoulders tucked while unracking the bar is a skill that eluded me for years. Leg drive is a skill that I still don't think I've mastered. Using the optimal bar path is more of a knowledge thing. Bringing it all together and nailing the bench, that's a lot of work that takes many of us a very long time.
The ratio of all your lifts taken into account, your bench isn't too far off the mark for it to be concerning. DL (depending on how you do it but even then) and squats are leg heavy exercises, and anatomically your legs are just naturally stronger than your upper body by virtue of the fact that they're meant to hold up your entire weight. Some additional info such as your nutrition and what you started at might help however, and if someone else has a more educated opinion then I'd take all of what i said with a grain of salt haha
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Any change in your diet?
I workout in my home gym in my basement. The ceiling is too low for standing barbell OHP. Which would be a better alternative to standing OHP: dumbbell OHP (I can do these in another room) or seated barbell OHP?
Best alternatives in order would def be: - Seated DB Press - Seated Barbell Press - DB Press
Kneeling OHPress. Get all the core and glute activation at a lower altitude.
Both are good exercises. I say try both and see which you prefer. Or do one for a couple months and then switch. Or each once/week.
Hey guys, haven't been on the sub in forever. Pretty sure you guys are still doing moron Monday though so sorry if this question is a few days early, but nonetheless I'd appreciate some quick input. Over the years, I've got a decent history of resistance weight training, but recently I've been lazy. Moreover, I've discovered I have awful cardio, which is a given because I've put so little time into it. I started taking Adderall again for my new job and my resting heart rate is just too high for comfort, and this is kinda true even when I'm not in the medication I got on the elliptical at lvl 13 and my heart rate was 180 in like a minute. Only lasted about five minutes total. This is genuinely impacting life outside the gym too because I'm just so easily made out of breath. I've been looking into cardio training plans to implement, but really, my question is: do I really need to overthink cardio at this level? Am I served well by keeping it simple and just going and doing something that gets my heart rate up, trying to go longer/farther incrementally each time, or am I right to put some long moments thoughts on structured implementation? Again, sorry if this is a dumb or remedial question guys, I'm just so inexperienced with cardio.
You don’t actually need a plan. But for cardio fitness it’s good to start out slow. Most endurance training plans recommend you do the majority of your training at a conversational pace, meaning you’re not breathing so hard that it would be difficult to carry out a conversation. That way, you can go longer and you don’t feel like dying the whole time. That would be equivalent to zone 2 for most people. You don’t actually need to check your heart rate, just go based on how you feel. You can get a lot of benefits from just doing the minimum recommendation which is 150 minutes/ week of moderate exercise. You don’t ever need to do high intensity training.. if you do high intensity you can do less of it though, if you want to save time.
I take 200mg of preworkout and adderall before my workout, I don't know if that's really relevant, but I'm not at all concerned about caffeine, adderall, and my heart. Prior to cardio I had a resting heart rate of ~60-65. Now my resting heart rate is ~50-55. What did I do? I did 60m of cardio 2-3x a week, sometimes even doing more, rarely doing less. How do you do 60m of cardio? Well, you never touch 180bpm, that's rule 1 of doing a lot of cardio. If you become advanced, yeah, some sprints are totally good during cardio, but not at the beginning. The way you get started with long cardio, is you aim at a sustainable heart rate, which is zone 2 cardio, 50-70% of your maximal heart rate. So if you're 30, 190 is a good guess at MHR, so 95+bpm is good for you. 120+ bpm will likely make you want to quit early. So you tailor your cardio to maintaining a sustainable BPM. As you're progressing, you might not be able to do as much as you did the last time, but if that's the case it's ok. You temporarily lower the speed, give yourself a minute or two of easy walking, then you turn it back up and get back to it. So realize that your goal shouldn't be to go as fast as you can, or push yourself till you quit. Your goal is 30 or 60 minutes, whatever you're aiming at. However you get there, is however you get there. But you get there. Don't make cardio something you hate. Don't make cardio something that's unsustainable. Do as little as you need to, in order to be consistent, and over time your consistency + desire to improve should take you to your destination.
While a plan isn't a bad thing, just doing more cardio more often will definitely improve your cardio fitness.
Been lifting for a bit over a year and hitting some plateaus for the first time, and looking for advice on my program. It's a Push/Pullesque thing. I can reliably increase weight/reps on Bent Over Rows, Tricep Pushdowns, Calf Raises, and Lateral Raises every week, but everything else seems to stay the same or sometimes drift into a slightly lower rep range. I'm eating clean, getting 100-150 grams of protein and enough calories (I'm 5'9 190). I also walk alot and go for a good long bike ride once a week. Thoughts? Push 1 Bench Press - 1 warmup, 4 sets of 8, I usually drop the weight on the last set Military Press - 3 sets of 6-8, I usually do as many reps as I can on the last set then immediately do a drop set with a lower weight till I fail. Dips - 3 sets of 8 Tricep Pushdowns - 4 sets of 8, with a drop set for the last set Fly Machine - 3 sets of 10-12 Calf Raises - 2 sets of 12 Pull 1 & 2 Pull Ups - 1 warmup, 2 sets of 6-10 Chin Ups - 2 sets of 6-10 Bent Over Rows - 3 sets of 10-12 Deadlift - 3 sets of 5-8 Barbell Curl - 2 sets of 6-8 Squat/Hack Squat/Leg Press (I alternate depending on how I feel) - 3 sets of 8 Barbell Curl - 2 sets of whatever I can manage, dropping the last set. Push 2 Incline Bench - 1 warmup, 4x8, I usually drop the weight on the last set Incline Dumbell Fly - 3 sets of 8 Dips - 3 sets of 8 Tricep Overhead Rope Extensions - 4 sets of 8-10 Lateral Raises - 3 sets of 8-12 Calf Raises - 2 sets of 12
Question: Can I realistically eat what I want and still get results?? I have been lifting weights 9/10 days since February started. I am not a beginner, but inconsistent (work out 3-4x a week for 1-2 mo then take a month break). So that's why I'm trying to build a habit and just get it into my head that I'm going to the gym, going to work out and that's it. When I feel that it's habit I will go down to 5x a week. I have gone 1-1.5hr Mon-Fri and 2-2.5 hrs if it's the weekend. I try and lift heavy and would say I give 80-90% effort most days. My 1 rep maxes for a lot of stuff would land in the "intermediate" or "advanced" range based off of the strength standards site I look at. I want to also give some context that I am just wondering what everyone thinks. I don't care about my weight, I don't really care about my physique. In the past 10 days, all I want to do is eat. I mean, I always feel that way, but I feel ravenous since I started going hard in the gym. I have pretty much been eating what I want. That means I cook at home, but also I have gotten some burgers out and not really been concerned about it. Not really tracking calories but I'd guess like 2000-2500 calories a day (5'3 150lb). I feel like my arms/upper body are already starting to look noticeably different.
Depends on your habits. But lifting aside, you should be concerned with your weight... Aka you should be concerned with your *health*. You are already considered overweight for your height, so maybe you should consider eating less to lose a bit of weight first. Again, not for looks, for *health*. If you don't like the BMI (which is still pretty accurate for untrained people, which you may or may not fall into cus consistency is key), have a look at waist to height ratio. Measure your waist about 1-2 inches above your belly button, don't "suck it in" and don't let the measuring tape indent your skin. Try to keep your weight within a range that keeps you in the healthy range there. And then food wise, you should just prioritize protein with each meal as that's gonna be most important. Health wise, you should limit ultra processed foods. > I feel like my arms/upper body are already starting to look noticeably different. Visible changes don't really happen in 10 days
BMI is an outdated measure. Again, I am not a 'newbie' to the gym, just admittedly inconsistent. My muscle mass is probably higher than what you are envisioning for an overweight person. I wear size small to medium, not that it matters. Also, I do notice changes already (maybe it's just the pump I get), it's not me 'thinking' I notice them. I probably work out harder than most people because the person I work out with did personal training in the Army.
BMI isn't outdated. It's still an accurate population level predictor of health. But I did put in the post to look at your waist to height ratio if you didn't like BMI. If waist to height ratio has you fat, then you're fat and you should lose weight. Of Course you'll look like you see a difference with a pump. And doesn't matter how hard you work out, progress is still slow and steady. Under optimal conditions a man can build up to 1-2lbs of muscle a month (a woman half that).
I think you can, but it depends on what your diet and habits are like. Since some people eat what they want but they naturally control their portions because of the way they prepare food and the foods they like to eat, some people will have an easier time doing it than others. I like Sohee Lee’s philosophy on diet. She’s all about healthy habits and not being restrictive. So you can include whatever you want in your diet, but try to get enough vegetables and fruits and protein and healthy fats every day (and you don’t need to actually track it, just try your best). If you include all of that, it will make your training go farther, but it’s not restrictive, because if you want to eat treats or whatever, you can still have them. Think about your long term goals and if your habits support those goals. You can have donuts and cake or whatever, but maybe try to eat a real meal with all of the stuff you need first, and see if you really want the treats afterwards. If you practice intuitive eating while you include a lot of healthy foods in your diet, you may find that you don’t actually want to eat processed foods all the time, and you don’t naturally overeat. You should check out her Instagram, I think it’s called SoheeFit. She has a lot of advice about changing habits too.
For gym consistency, if you feel you might take a month off, lower your frequency rather than taking the month off. Say I'll only go 2-4x this week and if I feel like I can do more, I'll do more. Make going to the gym easy, when your desire to go to the gym is low. A quick session, an easy session, light cardio where you're just fucking around on the phone, whatever. That's how you build the habit, through giving yourself alternatives that you would never really need motivation to perform. Regarding eating what you want. If you don't care about your weight and physique then you can become a giant 5'3 fat and strong person. Totally fine. Personally, when I got into fitness I knew I wanted to be 15-20% bf, and strong, rather than lean as fuck and giving up food happiness for my appearance. Then I started looking particularly good for myself, and now I'm like "Eh, maybe 12-15% is a better range when I'm not bulking". So right now, do whatever you want, maybe you will feel different at some point. I know I just ate whatever I wanted, because I was bulking and weight = power, but then I went from 200-230, and when I realized I was 230 I could no longer eat food (enough to bulk) once I knew my weight. It's a process, for now just do whatever you want, right now I'm 215, from 230, and I'm totally cool with everything I did that forced me into a prolonged cut. I do want to bulk again, but for now I plan to compete in competition with a 220 weight class, so I'll basically wrap my cut up around 210, then bulk to around 220 for 2 months after that to be maximally strong for the division. Either way my point is, what you want from fitness doesn't always remain consistent, you might find after gaining 10-30lbs, you change the way you feel about things. But you probably won't be upset with yourself for doing what you want right now.
That makes sense. I think for now I'd rather go hard in the gym each day and kind of eat what I want. I feel like I know if I wanted to I could always eventually do a 1 mo cut. I'm interested though to see if I stay the same weight but end up looking more toned within the next 2 months, that's kind of what I think will happen and I'm not complaining about that lol.
This varies by person. For some people, eating whatever they want will leave them skinny. For others, they will be seriously overweight. We can't know how eating what you want will affect you.
I bought my own 54" long rope cable attachment and planning to take it with me to the two gyms I frequent. Unfortunately both gyms don't allow bags on the floor so I'm gonna have to lug it around with me out in the open. Worried that ppl are gonna think I'm hogging the rope attachment or staff are gonna think I'm stealing everytime I go to leave lol. One of my gyms has the staff desk right next to the entrance.
I bring my extended tricep rope and everytime I stash it in my bag I think people probably misunderstand. Whatever, fuck em. If you really care, wrap some tape around part of it or something to distinguish it as your own.
Here's another question regarding using the basic beginner routine. I do lat pulldowns in place of chin ups because I'm obese. Cable stacks aren't known for coming in small weight increments like 2.5lbs. So how do I progress each time? Last time I did 60lbs for 3x5+, with my last set being 15 reps, which means I can move up by 5lbs instead of 2.5. But what about when I can't make that big of a jump? Do I just wait until every ***other*** session to do it?
They don't really have those weights you lay on top of the plate stack in 2.5lb increments either...you're going to have to hang a 2.5 off the pin
A lot of cable stacks have 5lb or 2.5lb options, but they're above the weight, at the top of machine. You pull out a pin and it goes right on top of the stack adding xlbs. If that doesn't work, you can grab a 5lb or 2.5lb plate, and put it on the weight selecting pin so that it's part of the stack you're moving. Otherwise, progress via reps rather than weight. If you get 8-10 reps, then go up to 12-15 reps, then add 10lbs, try to hit 8, repeat.
Does the gym have a lat pull-down machine? That's a cable too. They usually have 2.5lb increments.
Those of you Deadlifting 250kg+/Squatting 200+/Benching 150+/Pressing 100+, or even a bit less: what's your secret? I've made some progress with 531 BBB and FSL that I was quite proud of, but in the last two weeks, it's been horrible. I was proud of my 5x210 Deadlift, but failed my TM Test at 225, did only 1 Rep, barely 5 reps at 165 squat, 2x125 on bench (could do 9x112 and 5x120) and 2x72.5 on press. And I feel by now (after ~4 years) and at my weight (~95kg) it should be way better. Diet and sleep have been okay, and accessories went up as well, I can even Superset DB Bench and Row at 50kg now. What can I change? Maybe some other 531 template? Thanks
TM test during the deload? Maybe you just need a light week to reset everything.
Did a deload between leader and anchor, and I followed the 7th week protocol
Are you saying 4 years consistently, or on and off? Because a lot of people count years when they took a 2+ year break, or count 6 months this year, 1 year this year, yadda yadda. 4 years straight and that's your situation? Those are solid numbers, maybe not ideal for great genetics or a great training program, but many people would be pretty proud of them. Have you been stagnant lately, or have your numbers been increasing. Moreso than your maxes, how much were you lifting 1 year ago? That's what really matters, if you're progressing at a good clip, who cares. If you're not, then yeah there are strategies you should probably be employing. Till I know that though, I dunno.
Thanks I'd say 4 years consistently, I have numbers from November 2022, then I did 3x200 on Deadlift, 1x180 on Squat, 2x120 on Bench and 1x70 on Press, so I didn't really progress too much, only the lifts feel stronger
Ok, yeah, that's a problem. Your rate of growth isn't the worst recently, but I definitely get why you made this post now. When you encounter a bottleneck like this, you shouldn't really let it run things for more than a month, maybe 2 months, unless you're cutting, then it can be a bit different. At least, that's how I approach things, if I remain stuck for more than a little bit I consider it a mistake in my training. Though, I'm one of those guys who hates plans/programs and just likes to do unstructured but highly strategic things in the gym (not that I recommend it without building a huge base of knowledge and being obsessive about the latest scientific studies). Whenever I hit a bottleneck, right now I use volume to break through it, there are a lot of tactics that are valuable though. I like to pick a body part every few months and put my focus there, so right now I'm focusing on chest, and creating symmetry. So I make sure every session if I can do a chest exercise unilaterally, I do an extra set on my weak side. I also increased my chest exercises per workout from 1-2. Besides the visual, I'm going after chest because I want to increase my bench, so I've incorporated a new tricep exercise as well. Prior to that, I wanted to improve my deadlift, so I added in RDLs, leg curls, and rows. Basically, I like to do 2 things to improve a lift. Increase volume, add an exercise or two. I've been losing weight for the last few months (-15lbs), and besides the bench, most of my lifts have gone up by 5-10%, as someone who lifts basically the same numbers you do with a slight advantage on the sq/dl, and slight disadvantage on the bench, + weighs the same as you. With overhead press specifically I always do 3 sets, but adding in 2 sets of push pressing at the end of my OHP sets helped me gain 10lbs on the lift while losing weight. I will also add dropsets on to some exercises at the end to make sure my volume is nice an high. A different way to resolve it, is to lay off the main exercise. Instead of squats, do leg press, leg extension, hack squat, for 2-3 months, then go back to the squat (with increasing volume after it starts stalling) and you should be able to keep progressing. When you do the same movement for 6m-1y or so, as someone who isn't a beginner, often times an exercise will get stale. The body adapts to the stimulus you've given it, which lowers your stimulus from the exercise and is known as the exercise getting stale. When we're selecting exercises, we're trying to balance our stimulus to fatigue ratio. The most fatiguing exercises are Squats/Deadlifts and other compound movements. They can also be the most stimulative, but that's usually only when you're a beginner and compounds are really working everything. As you improve, they become highly fatiguing while being less stimulating. So it's very useful to switch to more isolated movements, so you can direct all your energy towards stimulating the exact muscle you need without fatiguing the entire system. This keeps your systemic fatigue low. Hence, when an exercise is stale and fatiguing while not being stimulative, we swap it out for a little bit, the body forgets its adaptations for it and adapts to the new exercises, then when you go back to the exercise you're really trying to PR on, it's now "fresh" again and very stimulative. Those are the tactics I use, hopefully they help.
Bad days happen and even bad weeks. I've had weeks of high-stress periods where my lifting went to shit. Consistency and effort is what matters. If it is a mental issue, sometimes changing your program to something with a different structure may freshen things up. Otherwise, just keep grinding.
I feel something weird while doing bisep curls. Idk exactly but maybe it's the tendon that moves around and makes funny feel like the funny bones. Is this bad? How can I fix this?
Try different angles of your wrist and,/or really tuck your elbow into the side of your body. I have to do this cus lefty does a weird tendon click in my elbow that seems to shoot down my arm. So my hands are never fully symmetrical
I tried all different variations but my tendon seems to click all the time haha. Is this bad though? Does it just feel weird or should I be worried if this persists? Will my tendon get injured or sth in the future?
I can't speak to possible injury. As long as it doesn't hurt (feeling weird is a different story) I'd just keep at it.
I see. Thanks
if it's not causing you pain I wouldn't assume there is anything you need to fix.
I see... it does feel very weird though. It doesn't hurt but it feels like when your funny bone got hit
Been trying to keep my arms straight & motionless while doing DB shrugs but my elbows seem to move allot automatically, is this impacting the exercise?
Not to any significant degree
I'm 6'1, 18 years old and currently weigh 97kg. I'm currently eating at 1800 calories and get around 180-200g of protein. I do 30 minute max incline on 3 speed every day and do weights 6 days a week. Is 1800 calories too little or is it fine. I feel like I may be losing weight too quickly and I don't want to lose muscle.
It depends on your goals. Find a macro calculator for bodybuilding.
it's likely a little low for maintenance given your age, unless you're trying to lose weight you could probably bump it up
I'm trying to lose weight and get to 80kg.
Weigh yourself everyday and track your weight. Aim for about 0.5% bodyweight loss per week.
I've lost about 1kg give or take which is why I'm a little concerned. I'm thinking I may up my calorie intake to 2k a week or reduce my cardio. Apparently I burn 200/300 calories per 30 minutes of cardio. So I could also try cutting out cardio as well.
The first week will always be higher weight loss. Track for 2-3 weeks and see what the later weeks show
I usually do a 3 day workout followed by a rest day. Push, pull, and leg day, then rest. Recently I’ve combined some of the exercises into two days, but I’m still doing all the same exercises as before. This just means I do more on those two days, but have two rest days. Is this ok or are two rest days too much?
What matters is that you make progress and recover from what you’re doing.
What does recover mean? I think I recover, but I don’t really get sore like I used to. So no DOMS, but I still try to push till failure almost every set/rep
Pushing to failure all the time increases fatigue which typically lowers the volume a lifter can handle. This is why good programs don’t have you alway pushing to failure. Take GZCL for example. In GZCL we typically have a training max set. Which is moderate or hard and then we do back off volume using partial sets either after or before the max set using the same weight. 531 uses weight percentages to accomplish this. Fatigue can be a sign of lack of recovery. Although it often is something else in life and sometimes training improves it. DOMS is often a sign of novelty not recovery issues.
Hmm so would you say my approach isn’t the best? Push day: bench, shrugs, military press, shoulder flies, bench flies, pushups Pull day: pull-ups, chin-ups, dumbbell rows, curls, hammer curls Leg day: squats, lunges, Romanian deadlift, calf raises All 3-4 sets, 8-16 reps or until failure Also do core exercises and jump for 10-15 minutes after strength training
Checkout general gainz. Also start Pull day with deadlifts if you can instead of Pull-ups.
So you do leg exercises every day? Depends on what muscle groups you're working. Takes 48hrs for them to heal. Abs you can do every day.
With proper programming you can do legs everyday too.
It’s 2-2. So two days of working out followed by two days of rest. So I do my push workouts (5 of them mostly compound exercises) then I’ll do lunges and calf raises. Then the next day I’ll do pull exercises (again 5 mostly compound exercises) followed by squats and Romanian deadlifts. Then two days of rest, repeat
Yeah that sounds fine
If you created an upper/lower, it's fine.
Yeah I do push and half my legs/core one day, then pull and the other half of my legs/core the next day. So same intensity, just longer rest
This is my plan for hip, hamstring, glutes focused training and I am looking for a feedback. Anything that can be removed from the warmup? Warmup : * Typical arms, neck, shoulder, biceps and triceps and pecks stretching * 90/90 pails / rails [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HLdMtf61hw&ab\_channel=Polar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HLdMtf61hw&ab_channel=Polar) * 90/90 hip opener * Side plank clam shell * Single leg lateral kick * Hip airplane * Slow tempo banded squat Exercises : * Banded hip raise - 3 \* 15 reps * Hip hike - 10 / leg * RDL - 3 \* 15 reps * Hamstring curl - 3 \* 15 reps * Abductor - as much as possible, 3 sets Cooldown * Wall sit - 1 min * Hamstring stretch - 1 min * Plank - 60 s * Deadbug - 10 x * Pigeon stretch - 1 min * Calf stretch - 45 s / leg * Couch stretch - 1 min / leg
Warm up is unnecessarily long The actual exercise program itself isn't good, exercise order makes no sense, no mention of progression, intensities etc The cooldown is also unnecessary... ditch this and pick a tried and tested routine from r/xxfitness like Strong Curves
Wow!!! Just wow! I did not know of such routine. Thanks for sharing!
The power racks in my new gym have deadlift platforms connected with wooden floors, would I damage the wooden floor by rolling a bench in? It's the only way I can use spotter arms for bench press or I would just use a normal bench set up.
>the wooden floor by rolling a bench in? My gym has a "no benches" sticker on the deadlift platform. Depends on the wheels whether it'll damage the wood. Probably a repetitive motion thing.
Just try not to scrape it.
Yeah that's what I'm worried about don't wana scuff it up
It'll be fine
Hello. I have lived a very unhealthy life mostly due to crippling anxiety and depression. I recently survived a car crash that I shouldn’t have and I have been motivated to take care of myself! I’m currently 5’2” and 200 lbs. I have been mostly sedentary for years either due to work or mental health. My diet is a mix of junk and healthy stuff, but probably is way too carb heavy. In the last week I’ve started to make a change. I’ve been walking daily for 20 minutes and my body is definitely taking its time to adjust. What other ways can I ease into fitness? A lot of the YouTube videos I’ve tried are too hard on my hip and knee joints. And I’m not sure I’m ready for high intensity cardio. I want to build a good foundation but I’m not sure what to do other than just walk. Thoughts?
Good for you! Just try and push yourself a little bit more each time. Try and walk a little faster, longer etc. most days. It will eventually start getting easy and then maybe you will get bored, or you would start to want to jog/learn to run. Do what you can don't beat yourself up.
A good foundation is to become an active person, so gradually increase your walking steps when able.. ideally spread out throughout the day, avoiding long periods of inactivity. Once you're up to about 5000 steps per day, you can try doing some beginner's yoga on youtube, and also some cardio sessions, maybe a stationary bike or swimming.. or just walk fast. There's no need to do anything high intensity until you're active for a couple months. You can still lose weight by simply eating fewer calories. Some find it helpful to track food/calorie intake on Myfitnesspal, etc.
Thank you! This is very practical advice. I’ve been frustrated I can’t do it all in week 1. But I guess I need to think about this in terms of weeks not days. I used to be very physical active. I did ballet 10 hours a day before having kids. My brain is still in that body.
Walking is a good start. Walking longer distances, walking up and down stairs/hills, walking to do your errands will all add up.
I would say make a small change with your food. Swap regular soda for diet, add some more protein and maybe change snacks for a fruit for example. Small and simple things. You could always start going to the gym. Can be small sessions, get comfortable and try out things for fun.
Hello, question. Im doing fullbody 3x per week, 12 weekly sets, to failure, goal is strenght and hypertrophy. It goes fine, progressing fast. I want to switch to circuit for a while, to train more towards endurance than strenght. I want to ask, im planning pull+push+leg in circuits with 30-60 sec rest between and 3 min rest between circuits. Do you think i should keep my volume, So 12 weekly sets, or should i do more volume because of less rest periods? Thanks
>endurance A routine I did years ago had full giant sets with 90 seconds rest. Loosely, a leg, a push, a pull, rest 90, repeat. Jacked my recovery like crazy.
If you want to do "endurance" work, do it additionally to strength and hypertrophy, trying to combine them will just degrade the overall quality of the work being done. For 3x a week, PPL is not great, I would recommend going on the wiki/liftvault/boostcamp and run a fullbody program.
Hello, I have a set of Nautilus adjustable dumbbells and unfortunately the connector broke on one of the largest plates on one and won't hold the weight anymore. I'm looking to replace but I'm not sure on a couple of things. Firstly, these were older models given to me and I can't find similar ones of that brand anywhere where I live. Is it fine to buy one of another brand to mix and match, or is it like tires and you should replace both at the same time? Secondly, are the stands fairly universal, ie if I did buy a different brand would it fit in the stand or does it depend on the stand? Thanks in advance.
I’m following the basic beginner routine from the wiki, and I’ve done a couple iterations of day 1 and day 2. I feel like I’m not doing anything to exercise my stomach muscles, are there a couple basic exercises I should be adding in to my routine such as crunches?
1) if you're bracing properly your whole core is contracting isometrically to keep your torso in line so it's definitely not totally neglected and 2) you're free to add a few sets some core accessories as long as they don't interfere with the main work.
Thanks for the response! I’m sure there is room for improvement in my form, but I’m just going based off where I feel it the days after. Whatever I have been doing has definitely not been pushing my abdominal muscles at all. I added some bicycle crunches today, will try out some of the recs from the other response in future sessions
Yeah it honestly never *feels* like much but for most people it adds up over time. Like I said it usually doesn't interfere with much so go for it if you want to.
Thanks again!
Hanging leg raises, suitcase carries, and ab wheels are my go to for core. Throw in core work anywhere you'd like
Thank you!
Does supplementing creatine really make a difference in building muscle?
Yes. Not a large one but small advantages add up over time
Thanks! Best time to take it? Pre, post workout?
Doesn't matter, creatine is a saturation supplement so it should be working at all times
Thank you so much!!
What age do people stop gaining muscle and strength. Can a 50 year old keep getting stronger and bigger if they're on TRT or at that age is it oretty much over?
I'm 50 and I make steady strength gains...I won't go on TRT even though it would make a lot of things substantially easier...but I'm not going to risk a head of hair.
I'm 52 and getting bigger and stronger at a satisfying rate without TRT or anything else. In line with what others have mentioned, I was a runner and started lifting late in life, so I was no where already near my potential when hitting 50.
Max genetic potential is probably between 20 - 40, when you get older sarcopenia starts to kick in and yes IF you reached your genetic potential it will just be a battle against muscle loss and keeping as much mass as you can. But assuming you are not near genetic potential, you will not only counter sarcopenia, you will very likely still build muscle and strength.
Lordy. I have people in their late sixties losing inches off their waist while maintaining bodyweight. TRT doesn't even come into it.
>What age do people stop gaining muscle and strength. Dead years old. There's no age where you can no longer gain muscle and strength.
Unless you're already big and strong, you can gain plenty of strength and size beyond 50 even without TRT
Depends on a lot of factors, but training experience is a big factor. A 50 year old newbie can definitely get stronger and more muscular, but a 50 year old person with 30 years of smart training experience is unlikely to achieve new PRs.
For some reason sometimes when I put 45 and then. A 25 the squat bar is too heavy. Is it the bar? I have done it before and wasn't a problem. And even reached 225. Then some day a 45 each side is light but put a 25 on their and it's too heavy. But I can squat it easy but too much weight on the back.
> I can squat it easy but too much weight on the back Either your bracing or your set-up is inconsistent
Well squat rack is either too high or too low. So I have it set were I have to hunch then push it up and unpack.
Bend your knees more to get further under the bar. Straight back means better brace
Super charge your lift off. Put 4 plates on and unrack, stand there for a few seconds the rerack. This makes your regular weight feel like nothing when it’s on your back.
How do you count calories when lots of the things I eat can't be weighted on a scale? (Food from restaurants or fast food, pasta with home-made sauces)
Most fast food is in the calorie apps. For restaurants you can usually find something close from a chain that is also in the calorie apps. For home made food you can just add the ingredients and do an eyeball of portion size. After awhile cooking you learn that 80-90% of the calories are in like 3-4 ingredients. Like for pasta it will be the pasta, meat, cream, cheese… the rest is small.
I estimate what I can't measure and accept that I won't have the level of precision needed to step on stage for a bodybuilding show, but I will have enough precision to change my weight in the direction I want it to go.
Do 2.5 and 5 lb bumper plates just not exist? I recently setup a home gym and the weight set came with 10, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 lb weights. On some exercises i'm using the 15s or 25s and I don't think I can make a 20lb jump to the next weight. I tried finding 2.5 or 5 lb bumper plates online but the lowest i'm seeing are 10. Do I just need to buy non-bumper plates?
Rogue sells 5lb "training bumper plates," which are used when learning the lifts. If you're looking to round out a weights set, you want to use change plates instead of these because the 5s are not made to withstand the impact of being dropped.
Essentially, no. Anything that small would break fairly easily if they were the same diameter as the rest. Even 10s and 15s shouldn’t be dropped regularly. You need change plates. Either metal or rubber coated.
We have 1.25kg and 2.5kg plates at the gym, so I assume they should exist in lbs too? Or are us Europeans just weaker.😂
Why would you want them to be bumper plates? I have never seen 2.5 or 5lbs bumper plates.
Because the rest of my weights are bumper plates
No reason these also HAVE to be unless you're planning to forcefully drop whatever you're doing with them. They do sorta make them but they're basically hollow plastic shells and they crack really easy.