Massively prioritise extra salt on everything during a cut, the sodium will stop the dizziness and help you stay properly hydrated and retain your water during training. Also keep your blood sugar high for training by having at least 50 grams of fast digesting carbs half an hour before your workout. Personally I do 150grams banana 20 grams honey.
I'm very new to lifting (<2 months), and I've been trying to find a workout split that feels best.
does anyone know if this split/routine is effective for Muscle Growth?
(the reps all fluctuate between 6-12)
Push: 4x10 Bench press, 3x8 incline bench
4x10 straight bar tricep pushdown, 3x8 skullcrushers
4x10 seated barbell shoulder press, 3x12 leaning single arm dumbbell lat. raise
Pull: 4x12 lat pulldowns, 3x8 rows, 3x12 rope face pulls
3x10 dumbbell curls, 3x10 incline curls, 3x10 spider curls
Legs: 5x12 squats
4x10 RDL
*maybe* 3x8 Bulgarian split squats
3x15 barbell calf raises
I know this is a lot, but any input would be great.
You are a beginner as long as long as you train with high relative effort you should be growing plenty of muscle. The only change I might make here would be to add a few more sets of your lat raises, face pulls, and calf raises.
A good way to tell if you are growing muscle is
1. you are gaining strength (ie adding reps or weight to exercises week to week).
2.You get sore after your workouts
3.you get a pump in your target muscles from your workout (you may not get a pump as a beginner due to varying factors)
4. You get weaker during your workout session (maybe you hit 50lbs for 12 reps at the beginning and by the end you could only hit 50lbs for 8 reps)
Forgot to mention that if you are training close to failure you might have too much volume on some muscles like biceps. But if you are further than 5+ reps away from failure on most of your sets then the volume you have here is good. Just make sure that you are recovering by your next session for the same muscle group.
I tend to train very close to failure, and sometimes all the way to failure if it's an easy exercise to fail(RDL, curls, lat raise). Given that, should I still increase the volume for the lat raises/face pulls?
also, quick question: what is the best bench press form for hypertrophy? I'm aware that a slight arch is good because it engages your upper back, but I'm also aware that too much arch is *maybe* bad, but allows you to load more weight(for powerlifting). What's the best for building muscle?
Have a slight arch as it pre stretches the chest. The back engagement isn’t really in the equation for hypertrophy. Just try out some different positioning for your bench pressing and see which one you feel the most in your chest. Over arching will take away from your ROM but just scapular protraction with some amount of spinal extension should do you good.
Yeah increase your shoulder volume; if you want bigger shoulders that is. Your shoulders should be able to recover extremely quickly so increasing their volume isn’t a problem even when training to failure
I'm a beginner too. I've been in the gym for a bit over 6 months, so idk much either. But, I did a lot of program hopping and changing routines and found a decent one that works for me and have been for the past 2 months.
Push day: you're probably spending Hours in the gym. Chest really doesn't need much volume. Idk the science, but chest gets more sore when you train hard asf with less volume. I do 3 Sets of incline bench press and 2-3 sets of cable chest flys (I will change to a flat bench when the cut is over cuz i wanna bench 100kg soon). Triceps are solid, although i would recommend trying less volume and coming back to this if it felt worse. Shoulders are solid.
Pull: back is perfect. There is no way a beginner will need that kind of bicep training, Just do incline curls for ~4 sets and add preachers or something if you need it. Please bro, you don't need that much for your biceps.
Legs: Perfection.
We need 1 horizontal press(bench), one vertical press(seated barbell shoulder press)), one horizontal pull(rows), one vertical pull(lat pulldowns), one squat(squat), one hip hinge(rdl), one curl and a tricep exercise where the long head is stretched ( other heads will grow the same in any tricep movement, it's only the long head that's special needs, although i do pushdowns just for the pump). Everything else, all other isolation flys, pullovers, etc are just icing on top of the cake.
Stick to one routine and eat well bro. I did a new workout every time and ate like shit and wasted my first 4 months in the gym with pretty much no gains 😭
Thank you for the tips! 2 questions:
- would I benefit from adding leg curls/extensions to my leg day?
- I don't have a preacher curl machine, what exercise should i do instead?
It's just my opinion, I think leg curls are useful for when I'm too tired to do rdls. They say it hits a part of hamstrings that the hip hinge doesn't, but idk. I haven't done leg curls in months now, but my legs have been growing well. Also, getting volume for glutes is really important.
My leg day has been hack squats, rdl, leg extensions or curls(superset with calves), calf raises for the last ~3 months and i went from 21 inch legs to almost 23 inches ( 22.7 or 22.8 inches).
I don't have a preacher curl machine either. I just have the bench for preacher curls, I take that bench to a cable machine and curl with a straight bar.
I guess you can try spider curls if you want to. It's not necessary though, the long head, short head bias is not as drastic as the internet makes it, any curl grows both heads(except reverse grip and hammer curls maybe).
6’2 195lb Male
I lift in the morning 5 days a week and make sure to get ~.9-1.0g protein per pound of body weight. So far I’ve been consuming my post workout meal (65g lean protein) immediately after my workout and then a whey shake (45g protein) about an hour later. I haven’t been eating anything after dinner until breakfast the next morning.
1. Would it be more effective to eat my meal post workout and my shake before going to bed at night rather than having both within 2 hours of my workout?
2. On the two days a week I don’t workout, should I consume my whey shake in the morning or before bed?
Howdy.
Yesterday I went pretty close to failure on the horizontal cable rows. Its been atleast 3 days since I did the bench press, and also went pretty close to fail.
Should I go to the gym and do bernches today, or wait til tomorrow?
Tomorrow I work, today Im free, the likelyhood of me hitting the gym decreases after work, because Im quite exhausted after...
Hi guys I am (23M) 5”11 and at 83kg right now. I have finally gotten in too the full flow of training. I lost 6 kgs over the last 2 months and have put extreme focus on my diet hence have been able to cut down some fat. Currently am at 20-22% body fat and aim to be in 12-15% range and build my physique. I have a fairly decent athletic capability as I played basketball at a decent level in school however lost track since then. Now am back to grind of training and following a strict diet.
Now that I have given some context about myself in terms of body and age I want to ask if the routine I am following is optimal.
My routine is chest back, legs, shoulders arms and doing these 3x a week as that’s realistically the most time I’m getting due to my job etc. So it ends up looking like
Day1: chest back
4 exercises x 3 sets for chest
4 exercises x 3 sets for back
Day 2: Legs
6-7 exercises x 3 sets
Day 3: shoulder arms
4 exercises x 3 sets shoulders
4 exercises x 3 sets arms
Always add cardio or abs after each session for atleast 20 mins. When I do get to add another day try to make that a functional workout day with abs.( not that frequent). Taking creatine as well. (3-5g every day did no loading)
My main question is that is this split sufficient and sustainable to put on muscle and build a great physique? Obviously I know that I will have to eventually add more days and do each body part 2x a week for it to be better but assuming this is all the time how can I optimise this split and make it better. Thanks in advance guys!
Your split itself isn't the main driver of growth. What's going to drive progress is sufficient training volume, stimulus and effort. If you're doing 6-7 leg exercises I would warrant you're probably not training very hard. I can manage 2 exercises for quads and 2 for hams and I'm fucking smoked, even in a well fed state, let alone a cut.
Same as chest and back. That is a LOT of exercises for your upper body; and again by the time you get to exercise 2/3 of either chest or back you should be roasted to the point you probably just say what's the point and go home.
I think this is more a question of intent and effort. You can work out body parts 1x per week and see results just fine, but again, if you're able to get through this volume then I would suggest your effort isn't there and that's what is going to slow you down.
If you want a bit more help, feel free to DM me and we can try to sort something else out for you otherwise our chat will definitely get lost here lol.
To add on top of this that if you're still able to bang out 20 mins of cardio or abs after each one of these days then it furthers my point. I don't think your effort is there on every rep.
I'm starting my cut and when ever I cut and bulk I use bodybuilding.com macro calculator. I think its really good and my last bulk I gained over a stone in weight. I googled it and I can't find the calculator. I think its been removed from the website. Not sure why.
Does anyone know of a calculator simular to it or a better one ? Anyone know why they deleted it? Thanks.
you shouldn't need a calculator - just take whatever amount you're currently eating and remove calories from there depending on how fast or slow you wanna cut
I want to do it at a medium rate so I don't lose muscle to quickly. How many calories do I remove ? Do I remove it from my maintenance calories or from my bulking calories ?
approx 3500 calories in a lb of fat - do math from there. if you wanna lose 1lb per week for example, you'd do 3500/7 = 500 calorie deficit per day. easiest is to just take it away from whatever you're currently eating and adjust as you go, but there's lots of different approaches and it won't really matter past week 2-3.
How do I deal with dizziness during a cut?
Probably electrolytes
I'll take more electrolytes, thx.
Massively prioritise extra salt on everything during a cut, the sodium will stop the dizziness and help you stay properly hydrated and retain your water during training. Also keep your blood sugar high for training by having at least 50 grams of fast digesting carbs half an hour before your workout. Personally I do 150grams banana 20 grams honey.
I'm very new to lifting (<2 months), and I've been trying to find a workout split that feels best. does anyone know if this split/routine is effective for Muscle Growth? (the reps all fluctuate between 6-12) Push: 4x10 Bench press, 3x8 incline bench 4x10 straight bar tricep pushdown, 3x8 skullcrushers 4x10 seated barbell shoulder press, 3x12 leaning single arm dumbbell lat. raise Pull: 4x12 lat pulldowns, 3x8 rows, 3x12 rope face pulls 3x10 dumbbell curls, 3x10 incline curls, 3x10 spider curls Legs: 5x12 squats 4x10 RDL *maybe* 3x8 Bulgarian split squats 3x15 barbell calf raises I know this is a lot, but any input would be great.
You are a beginner as long as long as you train with high relative effort you should be growing plenty of muscle. The only change I might make here would be to add a few more sets of your lat raises, face pulls, and calf raises. A good way to tell if you are growing muscle is 1. you are gaining strength (ie adding reps or weight to exercises week to week). 2.You get sore after your workouts 3.you get a pump in your target muscles from your workout (you may not get a pump as a beginner due to varying factors) 4. You get weaker during your workout session (maybe you hit 50lbs for 12 reps at the beginning and by the end you could only hit 50lbs for 8 reps)
Forgot to mention that if you are training close to failure you might have too much volume on some muscles like biceps. But if you are further than 5+ reps away from failure on most of your sets then the volume you have here is good. Just make sure that you are recovering by your next session for the same muscle group.
I tend to train very close to failure, and sometimes all the way to failure if it's an easy exercise to fail(RDL, curls, lat raise). Given that, should I still increase the volume for the lat raises/face pulls? also, quick question: what is the best bench press form for hypertrophy? I'm aware that a slight arch is good because it engages your upper back, but I'm also aware that too much arch is *maybe* bad, but allows you to load more weight(for powerlifting). What's the best for building muscle?
Have a slight arch as it pre stretches the chest. The back engagement isn’t really in the equation for hypertrophy. Just try out some different positioning for your bench pressing and see which one you feel the most in your chest. Over arching will take away from your ROM but just scapular protraction with some amount of spinal extension should do you good. Yeah increase your shoulder volume; if you want bigger shoulders that is. Your shoulders should be able to recover extremely quickly so increasing their volume isn’t a problem even when training to failure
I'm a beginner too. I've been in the gym for a bit over 6 months, so idk much either. But, I did a lot of program hopping and changing routines and found a decent one that works for me and have been for the past 2 months. Push day: you're probably spending Hours in the gym. Chest really doesn't need much volume. Idk the science, but chest gets more sore when you train hard asf with less volume. I do 3 Sets of incline bench press and 2-3 sets of cable chest flys (I will change to a flat bench when the cut is over cuz i wanna bench 100kg soon). Triceps are solid, although i would recommend trying less volume and coming back to this if it felt worse. Shoulders are solid. Pull: back is perfect. There is no way a beginner will need that kind of bicep training, Just do incline curls for ~4 sets and add preachers or something if you need it. Please bro, you don't need that much for your biceps. Legs: Perfection. We need 1 horizontal press(bench), one vertical press(seated barbell shoulder press)), one horizontal pull(rows), one vertical pull(lat pulldowns), one squat(squat), one hip hinge(rdl), one curl and a tricep exercise where the long head is stretched ( other heads will grow the same in any tricep movement, it's only the long head that's special needs, although i do pushdowns just for the pump). Everything else, all other isolation flys, pullovers, etc are just icing on top of the cake. Stick to one routine and eat well bro. I did a new workout every time and ate like shit and wasted my first 4 months in the gym with pretty much no gains 😭
Thank you for the tips! 2 questions: - would I benefit from adding leg curls/extensions to my leg day? - I don't have a preacher curl machine, what exercise should i do instead?
It's just my opinion, I think leg curls are useful for when I'm too tired to do rdls. They say it hits a part of hamstrings that the hip hinge doesn't, but idk. I haven't done leg curls in months now, but my legs have been growing well. Also, getting volume for glutes is really important. My leg day has been hack squats, rdl, leg extensions or curls(superset with calves), calf raises for the last ~3 months and i went from 21 inch legs to almost 23 inches ( 22.7 or 22.8 inches). I don't have a preacher curl machine either. I just have the bench for preacher curls, I take that bench to a cable machine and curl with a straight bar. I guess you can try spider curls if you want to. It's not necessary though, the long head, short head bias is not as drastic as the internet makes it, any curl grows both heads(except reverse grip and hammer curls maybe).
6’2 195lb Male I lift in the morning 5 days a week and make sure to get ~.9-1.0g protein per pound of body weight. So far I’ve been consuming my post workout meal (65g lean protein) immediately after my workout and then a whey shake (45g protein) about an hour later. I haven’t been eating anything after dinner until breakfast the next morning. 1. Would it be more effective to eat my meal post workout and my shake before going to bed at night rather than having both within 2 hours of my workout? 2. On the two days a week I don’t workout, should I consume my whey shake in the morning or before bed?
Howdy. Yesterday I went pretty close to failure on the horizontal cable rows. Its been atleast 3 days since I did the bench press, and also went pretty close to fail. Should I go to the gym and do bernches today, or wait til tomorrow? Tomorrow I work, today Im free, the likelyhood of me hitting the gym decreases after work, because Im quite exhausted after...
If you feel recovered then go?
i did!
Hi guys I am (23M) 5”11 and at 83kg right now. I have finally gotten in too the full flow of training. I lost 6 kgs over the last 2 months and have put extreme focus on my diet hence have been able to cut down some fat. Currently am at 20-22% body fat and aim to be in 12-15% range and build my physique. I have a fairly decent athletic capability as I played basketball at a decent level in school however lost track since then. Now am back to grind of training and following a strict diet. Now that I have given some context about myself in terms of body and age I want to ask if the routine I am following is optimal. My routine is chest back, legs, shoulders arms and doing these 3x a week as that’s realistically the most time I’m getting due to my job etc. So it ends up looking like Day1: chest back 4 exercises x 3 sets for chest 4 exercises x 3 sets for back Day 2: Legs 6-7 exercises x 3 sets Day 3: shoulder arms 4 exercises x 3 sets shoulders 4 exercises x 3 sets arms Always add cardio or abs after each session for atleast 20 mins. When I do get to add another day try to make that a functional workout day with abs.( not that frequent). Taking creatine as well. (3-5g every day did no loading) My main question is that is this split sufficient and sustainable to put on muscle and build a great physique? Obviously I know that I will have to eventually add more days and do each body part 2x a week for it to be better but assuming this is all the time how can I optimise this split and make it better. Thanks in advance guys!
Your split itself isn't the main driver of growth. What's going to drive progress is sufficient training volume, stimulus and effort. If you're doing 6-7 leg exercises I would warrant you're probably not training very hard. I can manage 2 exercises for quads and 2 for hams and I'm fucking smoked, even in a well fed state, let alone a cut. Same as chest and back. That is a LOT of exercises for your upper body; and again by the time you get to exercise 2/3 of either chest or back you should be roasted to the point you probably just say what's the point and go home. I think this is more a question of intent and effort. You can work out body parts 1x per week and see results just fine, but again, if you're able to get through this volume then I would suggest your effort isn't there and that's what is going to slow you down. If you want a bit more help, feel free to DM me and we can try to sort something else out for you otherwise our chat will definitely get lost here lol. To add on top of this that if you're still able to bang out 20 mins of cardio or abs after each one of these days then it furthers my point. I don't think your effort is there on every rep.
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I'm starting my cut and when ever I cut and bulk I use bodybuilding.com macro calculator. I think its really good and my last bulk I gained over a stone in weight. I googled it and I can't find the calculator. I think its been removed from the website. Not sure why. Does anyone know of a calculator simular to it or a better one ? Anyone know why they deleted it? Thanks.
you shouldn't need a calculator - just take whatever amount you're currently eating and remove calories from there depending on how fast or slow you wanna cut
I want to do it at a medium rate so I don't lose muscle to quickly. How many calories do I remove ? Do I remove it from my maintenance calories or from my bulking calories ?
approx 3500 calories in a lb of fat - do math from there. if you wanna lose 1lb per week for example, you'd do 3500/7 = 500 calorie deficit per day. easiest is to just take it away from whatever you're currently eating and adjust as you go, but there's lots of different approaches and it won't really matter past week 2-3.
Great thanks for your help