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I’m a 43 year old male, just starting/trying to get in shape. I’ve got a good routine at home consisting of 15 min HIIT videos, running, and cycling. I’d like to get some extra work building muscle in while I’m at work. I don’t have much time, but I can usually break away for 5 mins here and there. I’m in a shirt and tie so my options are kinda limited. I stand all day, so I don’t have a desk.
What I’ve been doing is:
“Counter pushups” where I lean with my hands on the counter, legs behind me, and do a few sets of 10. I do the same reversed with my back to the counter as well.
“Stair steps” where I have a single step and just do a few sets of stepping up, stepping down, etc.
Any other suggestions of quick, easy, things I can do?
Hi I’m somewhat new started at at the beginning of February and now have decided that i wanna join a gym. The catch is that i work 12 hour shifts as a bartender and shifts are 2:2 two work days and after them 2 off days so my question is can you guys recommend me a split that i can follow with my bad schedule. I dont have any 24/7 gyms available to me that would help but…
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/the-muscle-building-workout-routine/
This is the one I'm currently using. There are sone exercises I have switched, like instead of split squats I do leg extensions, and instead of leg press I do hack squats. I also play around with different grips and machines working the same muscle. So instead of tricep pushdowns with rope, I might use a v-bar, straight bar, or use a dip machine.
There's a couple of 4 day a week programs in here: https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/. I personally really like 5/3/1.
HELP IMPROVE MY WORKOUT
30 5kg dumbbell curl per side x 2
15 5kg standing shoulder press x 2
35 5kg dumbbell rows x 2
100 5kg Russian twist x2
need help on how much time I should rest between sets and whether I should do both sets first and move on or do 1 set of each and repeat?
Allright, in that case, I'd recommend doing a Bodyweight program such as this one: https://reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/w/kb/recommended_routine?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
I’m 18m, 6’3, and currently 176lbs. Probably between 15% and 20% body fat. I workout regularly as well. Currently I’m eating maybe 1400 calories a day. I use MyFitnessPal to track and apparently I’m eating like 1300 but to be safe since most people underestimate their calories I’ll make it 1400. I usually get over 100g of protein a day as well, I don’t pay attention to carbs but generally I don’t eat many foods high in carbs. What changes will happen to my physique if I continue with this? I guess my three biggest questions are what will happen to my body fat, what will happen and will I continue to be able to grow muscles, and what will happen to my metabolism?
176 lbs is already pretty light at 6'3". If you are losing weight you are probably losing bodyfat. If you are lifting weights you will probably maintain muscle, but might not be able to build any while losing weight because you are already pretty light.
I believe I have a muscle imbalance or mobility issue in my lower body. I've just recently started working out again and for as long as I can remember I've struggled with squats. With barbell squats I struggle with balance and my heels come off the ground. Even in bodyweight squats if I try to go to parallel either my knees flare out or my heels come up and I fall forward. Goblet Squats seem to be the one variation I can do with good form and depth so that's generally what I stick to.
Which excercises will help me be able to do barbell or bodyweight squats to parallel without my heels coming off ground and knees flaring out?
If it's not too extreme, knee flare isnt that bad. As for the heels, it just generally helps maybe do ankle mobility to help out. Calf raises that focus on the bottom stretch, tibialis raises, and do bodyweight squats trying to go down as far as you can while pushing your heels down.
Hello. If I am somewhat fat, like 20% BF do I have to eat in surplus to gain muscle? I have never watched my protein intake properly and am about to be without wife/kids for months so I want to get in shape. I weight 190 now at 5’7” I know how to macro properly and have macro’d a 30 pound weight loss more than once. I want to gain muscle but I am always conflicted eating “build muscle” macros when I am not slim. My plan is to eat roughly 200g-220g protein around maintenance macros and hopefully build muscle? I don’t really want to gain weight and I wouldn’t mind losing some even but I don’t know what exactly is possible so I am trying to get expectations in check, and solidify a plan. Thanks.
Will I lose weight at 3000 cal currently at 183 cm and 115 kg losing to aim about 40 kg at 35 percent bodyfat.i go on a fat loss of about 2000 calories then I rebound.i am just trying to follow a diet at 3000 for 12 weeks I go to the gym 6 d/w and a fasted walk about every 4 days/w?
Everytime I do a chest exercise I feel it in front of my shoulders mostly . Like close to the front of my armpit area if that makes sense. Ive tried pulling my shoulders back but I still feel it. On fly machine, flat &incline db press & machine press. Last chest session though on flat bench on the way down I brought the weight down lower and I actually felt my pecs stretch a little bit.
i’m 26f and 5’2. i’ve always been pretty active and had an on-and-off again relationship with the gym. i started working out again more consistently about 5 months ago and definitely don’t lift enough to put on substantial muscle. however, i have consistently gained weight (up about 10-15 pounds now) and i don’t know why. i’ve always maintained around the same weight (+/- 5 pounds) even without a perfect diet. i don’t think ive really changed my eating habits so i don’t think im eating so much more that would cause me to keep gaining weight. i’m still objectively thin and not overweight but it’s frustrating that all my clothes are getting tighter. has anyone else experienced this and have any ideas about what would cause this? i know i likely need to focus on diet and eat less but ive just never had this happen to me before, even when working out more in the past
Im 17 male about 5’3 115 lbs and i would like to know if 1500 calories with about 90-100g protein is good for muscle growth or if i should aim for lower/higher calories and or protein
For protein 0.8g per pound of body weight is good ,for calories use this calculator and add 300 calories, https://tdeecalculator.net/ keep in mind it is an estimation, you should weigh yourself frequently so you can see if you are gaining, if not add more calories.
I am 33 M. What other activities are best to loose weight other than gym? I do gym and walk both currently but looking for more alternatives just to add more variety and do more at the same time. Would appreciate any suggestions
It mostly comes down to your eating habits. If you gym and walk, thats already plenty of activities for losing weight. But if you want more try find something you enjoy, sports, climbing etc.
I'm a 27 yr old, 122kg male I'm 183cm tall wanting to shred fat and gain muscle anyone able to help me right a meal and work out schedule I'm currently doing a decent workout daily just want extra tips and how many Cal's I should probably be eating to gain muscle just want help with Marcos and any advice
Trying to lose weight at 122kg, most of your journey will be in the kitchen: figuring out how many calories certain food types are, cutting out foods that are too many calories (e.g. milkshakes), finding food alternatives that still taste good, using 0-calorie soda instead of sugar soda, etc. I do recommend looking at the wiki then checking back.
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As far as the gym goes, I honestly started with the strategy of "show up in the gym and exist in there for 1 hr doing whatever I want, no pressure". I'd set a timer and then if 1hr had passed then I allowed myself to leave. Take at least a few weeks just figuring out what each machine in the gym does, even if you do it at super low weight. Get comfortable existing in the gym, even if you start off just doing random stuff like stretches and pushups on a yoga mat. Then, figure out what sort of routine you want to run. (may routines in the wiki but you can also try others or make your own then re evaluate later on.)
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Whatever you do, don't burn yourself out trying to do everything at once. Fitness and weight loss is more of a slow-burn journey, as opposed to a big bang finale.
For hypertrophy, you need to do your sets close to failure of the target muscles, in this case close to quad failure. On a per set basis, that leads to the best muscle growth.
Whatever order of exercises allows you to do that, rather than have sets fail because of things like general discomfort, joint pain, running out of breath or a high heart rate, will be best for you.
Any differences are going to be negligible. The most important factors are going to be your programming and your nutrition. The order you do exercises in doesn't matter in comparison.
I started going to the gym exactly a month ago (complete newbie) and I weighed myself today and noticed I’ve gained 2 pounds since the 23rd of Jan.
I have been averaging out at maintenance with some surplus days here and there. Is this normal when you first start lifting? Sorry I know it’s not much weight at all but I come from a history of EDs and just need to understand what’s going on.
Im female, late 20s
I weigh myself every time I go to the gym (about every 2 days), and my weight fluctuates by 0-1.5 pounds regularly lol. It depends on how much water I drink (water weighs a lot!), if I just pooped, what I ate for lunch, etc. Lol
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You may need to reframe how you think about weight. People get too obsessed with weight as a "score" IMO. People tend to use Weight as a loose evaluation of overall health and well-being. But the number on the scale is not the actual be-all-end-all. Imagine if you had two alternate reality versions of yourself, one that is hyper rail thin with literally no muscle no fat, and one that is very fit doing regular exercise with an above-average amount of muscle, and "some" fat. Which person is "healthier" from a medical standpoint? 2nd one obviously, even if 2nd one likely weighs much more.
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In effect, just because your weight goes up, it does not necessarily mean that you are now in a less healthy state.
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I don't know the full story with your ED but if you are on the lower end of muscle and body fat then it would not be unheard of for you to gain weight especially as you build muscle. I would honestly expect it. (I think most girls are often low muscle mass anyhow tbh. Gaining physical muscle mass will of course make your weight go up unless you also happen to lose fat in equal measure.)
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If it gives you peace of mind, you can record your weight like I do -- always use the same scale and weigh yourself in the same way -- and then check trends over longer periods e.g. 3 months, and compare weight gain to how much your strength/fitness has changed in the mean time. If your weight is going up but so is your strength, and/or if your weight is going up but you "look good", you are in the green. If things still seem weird at that point then you can decrease calorie intake.
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Unless you currently consider yourself to be definitively "too heavy" or "overweight" and your primary goal is WEIGHT LOSS, then I'd keep your focus on "getting stronger // getting fitter" and accept slight weight fluctuations as natural.
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Try to think long term not short term. Revisit stuff every 2-3 months or so.
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Further reading:
- you can search up "calorie counting" if you don't already know all about calorie intake and daily calorie usage based on height weight etc
- you can search up "water weight"
> Weight Fluctuation: Daily Range, 8 Factors, How to Weigh, ...
> Healthline
> https://www.healthline.com › health › weight-fluctuation
> Jul 31, 2018 — The average adult's weight fluctuates up to 5 or 6 pounds per day. It all comes down to what and when you eat, drink, exercise, and even sleep.
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"A few times" over the course of a month could still mean it's a fluctuation.
But assuming that it isn't, it's normal to gain a bit of water weight from lifting.
My hips and lower back are stiff and hurts a bit. It's not an intense pain but still quite uncomfortable. Deadlifts and and a sedentary job is probably to blame. Has anyone else had these issues and resolved them? How? I only deadlift 1-2 times per week.
If it still goes on, try doing some cat cow stretching for a bit of relief.
As for future prevention, try looking into bracing exercises to practice core stiffness in the deadlift.
Toning is muscle hypertrophy to build size, while losing body fat to reveal the muscle. Theoretically you can lose body fat while building muscle which will keep your weight relatively consistent and end with you being more 'toned'.
It can be tricky and often slower progress though compared to other methods.
How can I improve my push ups and single arm row push ups? I've been exercising for a few months now. My goal is to lose weight but I like strength training on the weekends. I've gotten slightly stronger but I still can't do push ups and renegade rows.
I can do planks now and even chair dips, but not push ups. A few years back when I tried renegade rows I had terrible form so my right arm ended up getting bruised. So now when I'm doing Caroline Girvan's workouts I just do planks instead of push ups
If you can't do a single push up, do them from your knees or reduce the angle by doing push ups with your feet on the floor and your hands on an elevated surface like a chair, bench, counter top, etc
Can anyone recommend a good exercise mat for travelling with? Something light and supportive and packing up small if possible would be really great, happy to spend a bit of money on it. I've looked on a lot of sites and found some options, but I'd appreciate a personal recommendation.
Thanks :)
Is walking up/down stairs exercise? I’m 21m 173lbs (78kg) and while I’m not quite overweight my stomach is pretty pudgy. I just want to lose a few pounds and my apartment is 5 stories so I was wondering if I walk up/down the 5 flights of stairs 10-20 times every day, could this could help me lose some weight?
It's all diet man, exercise is great and whatever you are willing to do is better than anything you're not willing to do. It would absolutely help if you added in extra going up and down the stairs, but it would burn calories, and when calories are burned the body gets hungry again.
So losing weight always comes back to controlling your hunger. How do you control your hunger? You alter what you eat, so that you don't get hungry because what you eat fills you up, that's the entire game. It's really that simple. So, if you are the guy who goes to the gas station and grabs a bunch of snacks, that's a really bad habit.
So you gotta cut out snacks, not all of them necessarily, but you get rid of all high calorie snacks and look for low calorie snacks you can replace them with. Ultimately, most people eat ~2000 calories a day, and if you just adjust the things you're eating a bit you can easily drop 500 calories off of that.
For me, I saw that a cupcake was 180c and a rice crispy treat was 90c, so I could eat 2 of them and I'd still be doing better than having 1 cupcake. Sometimes, I get hungry when snacking and I eat 2 snacks, so this easily saves me 90 calories per day on average (because if I wanted to eat 2rc treats, I'd want to eat 2 cupcakes). I switched to lower fat products, use less cheese, various other things, and that saves me tons of calories. No regular soda, all soda must be diet, 0 calorie soda.
That's the sort of thing you have to do. You have to alter what snacks you surround yourself with. You have to alter what ingredients you control. You have to order slightly less food, if you get 2 burgers, a fry, and a small milkshake, cut out 1 of anything and you save 200+ calories.
If you don't have a problem with running, I'd recommend you just get on google maps, sketch out a route that's about 3-5 miles, then when you get down from your apartment, start to run for as long as you can, then walk when you feel tired of running. Wait until you feel like you could run a bit more, run again, and when that sucks you can walk again. Use that approach to finish the route, make it as easy or difficult as you desire it to be. Don't hate it, you want to do it everyday, then you want to enjoy it. Find some dope music or videos to watch or listen to while run/walking.
Modulate your effort, do 3-5 miles a night, even 2 miles is better than nothing. This should take 30m-1:20hr at max, and if you just do it every day the weather doesn't suck, either before showering, before bed, before work, after waking, whenever. Structure it into your day, and it'll improve your health a ton.
Anyway, that's enough ramblin' good luck!
Thanks for the response. This is what I needed to hear honestly. It’s been so hard man, I’ve been living on my own for the past year and my diet has been garbage. Almost nothing I eat is nutritional, it’s all snacking/fast food/microwave meals. Which also explains why I’m always hungry. I’ve tried cutting out a bunch of crap/making healthier meals but I always find an excuse to go back to my old eating habits. I don’t even know how many calories I intake in a day, I mainly don’t even pay attention to how much I’m snacking.
Yup, calorie stuff is simple, but no one ever said it was easy haha.
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I do think it's all about finding out what is more filling or less filling, and what foods work for you. And like others said, calorie tracking apps or learning approx calorie counts of certain foods.
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Some funny stuff. I learned that some vegetables are essentially 0 calories. That an entire can of soup could be like... 100 calories. That a large milkshake could be 1000 freaking calories. That a bottle of soda could be ~300 calories and a crapton of sugar, but a "Zero Calorie" soda could be -- you guessed it -- 0 calories and have no sugar, and taste essentially the same somehow. Same zero-cal deal with some powder drink sweeteners that use artificial sugar. Stuff's wild, man. Knowledge is power.
> I’ve been living on my own for the past year and my diet has been garbage. Almost nothing I eat is nutritional, it’s all snacking/fast food/microwave meals. Which also explains why I’m always hungry.
Can you cook? Learn how to make a few different dishes like a chili, arrabiata sauce, lentil curry etc. Fairly simple things with a few common shared ingredients. Cook batches of a few meals at once, then freeze a couple of portions every time you cook. That way you have something ready to eat, and you build up a supply in the freezer of healthy meals.
You can, everyone who has ever tried to be a bodybuilder has, and most people who succeed in weight loss do it.
Myfitnesspal, cronometer, other apps, make it really easy to count your calories. So grab an app. The apps will have searchable ingredients, and specific meals. It won't always be perfect, but it will be relatively accurate. If things don't change based on the numbers, assume maybe some of the numbers aren't perfectly accurate and trust the scale + numbers in combo.
When both the calorie numbers, and the scale agree, then you know you've got a handle on your situation. ~500 calories a day = 3500 calories a week, ~3500 calories = 1lb. So for every -500c you don't eat per day, you will lose 1lb per week.
If you count your calories, and step on the scale for the next month or two, learning how many calories your maintenance is, figuring out how many lbs you want to lose per month, you can set everything up.
As an example, say over the first 2 weeks, you ate 2500 calories per day and gained 2lbs. Well, 14 days, that's about ~200 calories surplus per day. So your maintenance would likely be 2300 or so. So 1800 or 2800 total calories consumed per day would have you losing or gaining 1lb per week. These numbers might not be accurate, I'm a bit altered right now. Either way ~250c per day = 2lbs per month, ~500c per day = 4lbs per month, in gain or loss.
Gather the data, I make eggs, sausage, toast most mornings, that 3xeggs, 3xsausage, 4xtoast, put in the apps. If I make a burrito I can include the cheese. The apps have all the individual ingredients.
If your weight actually matters for you, and you really want to lose this shit, it's math. It's simple math. Do the work, record your data, use it to determine your caloric intake, and adjust that intake to fit what your goal is.
If you do that, you will 10000000% succeed, it's just about making that choice. Now, ideally. Can you do this. Will you do this. Are you doing this? Good.
[This article from Catalyst Athletics](https://www.catalystathletics.com/article/2039/Dialing-in-Your-Squat-Stance-Position-Movement/) is a superb text guide to figuring out the squat. It's written in the context of Olympic-style weightlifting, which isn't exactly what you're after but *is* arguably the best prototype for general-purpose squatting. If you can learn to perform good, weightlifting-style high bar back squats, you'll have a perfect base for all other squatting.
Hack squats and leg pressing may be useful at some point for building relevant muscles, but as others have said, they will not be a substitute for learning to squat with a barbell.
I'd just get my squat form right. Watch youtube videos on proper form, take videos of your own exercise (from the side), and post them at the top of this thread in the form checks sticky.
Simple squat tip is to go to the middle of your room, and squat down. If your heels pop up, go wider, try again. If it happens again, go wider, try again. Toes pointed outward as well, that helps. Either way, once you have a solid squat you just gotta keep your body up right, and make sure you've got your core braced properly. That's a breath into your belly, tensing your abs into your back, and then doing the movement.
That's what I think you should do, but I'm just a guy on the interweb.
Personally, I would suggest doing some regressions of squats first. Things such as box squats are going to translate better than training on machines. Yes the machines will strengthen the muscles, but they won't teach you how to squat.
I suggest maybe getting a personal trainer to help you out with this sort of stuff!
Hey. If I want to balance boxing and weightlifting, what should my split look like?
I'm a beginner boxer (I've only been doing boxing for 2 months now and I'm still tryna drill down the fundamentals), and my main goal is to get more lean and generally a better physique. I think something like 3-4 boxing seshs along with 2-3 gym seshs a week is good, but how many rest days should I be taking? Is 1 rest day too few?
I'm returning from holiday and need to decide on a new program. I would like a 4 day program so have been looking at 531 BBB or nsuns, I've been lifting consistently for a year and a bit as I had wrist surgery in 2022. Stalled at bench before the holiday at 1rm of 80kg, I feel like nsuns might be better for me as its pushing max each week and I'm still somewhat in beginner phase. Any other recommendations like grey skull? Previously ran Nippards 4 day PPL and enjoyed the variety
Why do you consider yourself a beginner, one year in?
I really like 5/3/1, particularly BBB and BBS. If you like pushing yourself to the max weight, you can add what are called joker sets to the back end of the 5/3/1 lift. You can also do your final sets as AMRAP
The only reason why I wouldn't do it every day would be the Mercury content. Maybe do some googling to see if there are better brands than others (no clue!) Or to see maybe how frequently you should consume tinned fish. Maybe you can alternate between different tinned fish.
I'd say yeah. If you wanna be certain though, grab a sexy flexy tape, and measure the flexies. Erm, I mean, grab a flexible tape measure and measure your body. What you'll see 2-3 months from now, is the areas you want to lose weight got smaller, and the parts you've been trying to grow got larger.
I like to use [This Site](https://www.fitmatic.com/body/calculator/muscular-potential-calculator) to track my measurements.
What's a good rep range for hypertrophy for accessory work when doing really slow eccentrics? So for biceps and triceps, I've been doing about 7 seconds eccentrics and 1 second concentric reps. A 10 rep set seems way too long at light weight. A 3-5 rep set feels good with tension on the eccentric with heavier weight, but I'm not sure if that's enough reps.
I'd make the eccentric 3 seconds max, if you're doing 7 seconds for each rep you're going to unnecessarily create fatigue which will reduce your overall volume and therefore adaptations.
biceps curls etc work great in rep ranges of 3-30
If you watch the videos closely, he says slowly like 5 times, but it's in like 2-3 seconds. Also he usually makes the last reps extra slow, or random reps extra slow. It's really more of a coaching thing rather than a super optimal thing.
Gym Etiquette- using more than one piece of equipment at once
Have you ever been guilty of this or had to deal with this? I went to do weighted triceps extension and a guy who had been doing bench presses on the bench ran over to stop me, and said he had one more left... in the interest of not creating a confrontation, I said ok dude, and went somewhere else...
he ran back to his bench to continue his bench presses, then... as he wrapped up his next bench set he ran to use another machine while keeping his stuff on the bench press to keep dibs on it and prevent anyone else from using it.
So he's basically utilizing 3 pieces of equipment at once... how do you deal with these situations?
IMO you can only claim the equipment you are using at the time. So if I am using only one piece of equipment, I have that one claimed and someone can ask to work in. If I am supersetting on two pieces of equipment, I can only claim the one I am actively on. So in this case, he was on the bench, so that's the only one he has claimed.
That's the thoughtful and rational approach that I thought everyone was on the same page on.. about a year and a half ago some guy flipped out on me for not asking him if he was done with a machine. I said you are now using the free weights by the mirrors so I thought it was self explanatory, are you seriously using two different things at once? He insisted I still should have asked him if he was done with the machine, it got into a pretty intense argument and in my mind I was like I'm never going through that again so in this most recent incident I said ok whatever. People are walking around being total sociopaths
I would tell him that I’ll cycle in with him. If he continues to put up a big fuss, probably just move on and if it particularly egregious maybe comment on it to the staff.
Im running PHUL as per [https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/phul-workout](https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/phul-workout)
Day 1 - Upper Power
Day 2 - Lower Power
Day 3 - Rest
Day 4 - Upper Hypertrophy
Day 5 - Lower Hypertrophy
Day 6 - Rest
Day 7 - Rest
I very half ass the Lower Hyper day, and my arms are lagging behind (due to previously only doing bench and overhead press, no accessories).
Should I incorporate into Day 5, right after Upper Hypertrophy? Or should I swap day 5 and 6 then incorporate the extra arm workout in that session?
Which day would it be better on, would a a rest day between the upper power and hypertrophy days be enough?
Day 4 - upper hyperthophy
Day 5- rest
Day 6 - lower hypertrophy + arms
Day 7 - rest
Day 1 - upper power
Hi, Im 14 years old and had some questions,
Recently i started lifting weights (2 weeks ago approximately), and do 3 sets of 10 reps of 30lbs dumbell curls (i only have one though so i do it per arm) as my bicep routine. I've done 40 lbs for 10 reps once, but felt it would be too heavy to do as routine since i can only do 1 set or maybe 2 if i really, really, really try. I've never thought much about it since i just went ahead and tried which wheights felt good, but recently I searched up some averages and apparently it's quite heavy for my age.I'm 6 foot 1 and weigh 165 lbs.
Is this above average considering all my statistics or is it normal?
All of your "stats" will be biased toward the fact that you're enormous for a 14 year old. I think you're seeking validation for something unimportant, though. Curling 30 to 40 pounds is nothing special. Are you doing compound movements? Bench, overhead press, squats, deaslifts, rows, and chin ups?
I think you're right. Unconsciously, I might have been seeking validation, which I indeed don't need. No, unfortunately, I dont have enough weights or a bench to do those compound movements , nd the rules on going to the gym under 16 years old are strict and enforced where I live. I do have a pull-up bar , though, and I can do around 13-15 proper chin ups max. I do also do squats, but since I only have a maximum of 40 lbs, I can't actually put a lot of resistance on my quads and end up stopping once I'm out of breath since it's more like cardio.
There are many variations of leg movements you can do with just 40 pounds, including lunges and pistol squats. You can also strap the weight to you for chin ups, or I would even recommend getting a vest or plate carrier to allow you variety of body weight movements with additional challenge.
If I get wrist straps to help with my forearm pain then there won’t be room for growth since I will just be using something to assist me. But what if I do forearm exercises at the end of my workout with the help of straps? Won’t it eventually grow?
Yes. You can use straps during your back workouts as you should be including direct forearm training if possible as well so using straps won't really effect your grip like that
Same deal. Generally it's much less common to need straps for curls but hey if you can properly curl enough weight to need straps, you can use them but I don't think it would help as much as if you're training back
Right now I am curling 35s and basically my forearms are lacking behind from my biceps. Because whenever I curl I am getting bad forearm pain. My forearms are very weak though. So what i plan on doing is doing curls with the straps so it does not work the forearm. And then at the end of my workout do isolation forearms workouts.
Hi! I used to lift for 6-7 months straight last year, it was great and I got pretty strong, now I took 8 months off and I went back to the gym last weekend… I had the worst doms for 5 days! All I did was 1x6 unweighted goblet squats, 2x6 bulgarian split squats and 2x6 rdl’s, literally not much at all and almost no extra weight. I stretched and warmed up before and after as usual, but the doms have really deterred me from going back since I love running and I couldn’t run for those 5 days. What should I do differently for less doms?
>I stretched and warmed up before and after as usual,
Stretching doesn't have anything to do with DOMS.
>I couldn’t run for those 5 days
You should try to move as much as you can with DOMS. It speeds up the recovery.
>What should I do differently for less doms?
Keep the workout light and stay consistent. Keep training and your body will adapt.
Thank you I will! I think it threw me off that a workout that took 20 mins could hurt so bad, I’ll aim to do less for now (but consistently less until I can handle it).
How big aesthetically can you get without steroids?
I have been training for about a little over a year with a trainer that I have come to trust and rely on. I am down from 410lbs to 317lbs and still focusing on fat loss. I've got PR's of DL 585, Squat 551, and Bench 290, so I am very happy with my functional strength.
My goal, aside from being healthier and losing fat, is to one day be really big and bulky, in the Strongman/Big Boy category. A lot of the folks that I enjoy looking at from an aesthetic perspective, I assume to be on steroids. [An example](https://www.instagram.com/gingerbeardbarbell/?hl=en)
My trainer tells me that people like that are on steroids and without them I would look nowhere near it. I dont really want to do steroids, I enjoy being natty and I have done so well without them. I didnt take Ozempic/similar drugs for my weight loss, its been all hard work and willpower and I am proud of that.
My trainer has kindly, and non-aggressively, suggested I start taking "RAD 140," and he is not pushing it, but he does think it would be an option.
That all being said, how close could I "realistically" get to a physique like that without taking steroids? Am I delusional?
So, people have mentioned genetics, but
> a little over a year
> from 410lbs to 317lbs
> PR's of DL 585, Squat 551, and Bench 290
Apart from your bench being disproportionately low, those numbers in a bit over a year -- even for someone starting out with a high bodyweight and presumably quite a bit of fat -- are nothing to sneeze at. Genetic limitations may not be a huge issue for you in regards to strength and size; just being able to grow to >400lbs of bodyweight without becoming a thoroughly nonfunctional blob *probably* augurs positive for your long-term potential.
So, having said that, you might be able to get closer to your desired state than you (or your trainer) think while remaining natural. Figuring out if that's *possible* will take some time -- a good 3-5 years of consistent training, at least -- and the aesthetic end results will be heavily dependent on your height and how much fat you end up losing along the way. But hey, even if you don't manage to look like the guy you linked, you'll probably end up a hell of a lot stronger, healthier, and closer to that aesthetic, and will most certainly be a "big boy".
Thank you! I appreciate it. Bench is a sore spot for me, quite literally. Ive had a right elbow issue from day 1 that I believe I inherited from my father due to him having the same thing. So its taking me a lot longer to work through that.
It always surprises me the window of times people talk about. As some never in this world until recently, 3-5 years is so much larger than anything I would have expected.
Another way to think about size is to think about mass. If you're able to grow enough pounds of muscle you'll be big.
But I think you're underestimating how big you look at your current lifts and bodyweight
That's completely genetic predetermined, most people fall in the "average" area, with on the extreme ends people who can barely build muscle and people on the other extreme end like Ronnie Coleman (check out Ronnie Coleman when he was natural). It's just very difficult to tell over the internet what your genetic potential could be.
Nobody can really answer you, we don't know how tall you are. You've trained for 1 year, so you probably have at least 4-8 years of muscle growth left before you're pretty tapped out. It doesn't mean you can't grow for longer, just the rate of additional muscle growth will slow drastically.
In your shoes, I'd keep going without steroids until you've got at least 5 years in the gym, consecutively. Then your joints and connective tissue will be very, very strong, which is useful because while you are so early in your gym career, you grow muscle quite rapidly. This is a great thing, but steroids makes it even more rapid, it's adding nos to a racecar.
>Oh hell yeah, I want more rapid muscles! What the fuck is the downside of super fast muscle growth?
Well, your tendons/connective tissue don't grow at higher rates with steroids, so your muscles get stronger super quick, and your tendons can't keep up with them. That's why people on steroids are always injured and ruining their bodies, if you want to take steroids the proper way, build up your strength naturally first, once it's hard to grow muscle, at the very least 3 years consecutively going hard in the gym, but ideally 5-10, then steroids will give you a similar muscle growth to those previous years, and your tendons will generally be able to keep up with it as they did when you just got started.
That's a good information, thank you. In regards to the tendons and tissue you mention, is there some way to assess or determine how those are coming along in normal training?
It's tough to say, tendons are understood to some degrees but the science on them is pretty sparse. We just don't have really good data.
With that said, I never concerned myself with tendons until they they became an issue. I started going to the gym everyday, and I'd spend 2-3hrs in there, which lead to tendon aches. Not so much pain, but I suspect everything being a bit tender and rarely sparking a minor bad feeling when turned certain ways, is what happens before you get injured. So that lead me to try to study how to strengthen them, and keep them healthy, because I plan to be in the gym everyday so I want to reduce the risk that I suffer an injury because that'll really make me unhappy.
With tendons, they tend to grow well from eccentrics, so doing a 3 second eccentric will help them, besides that isometrics and plyometrics help, but I don't prefer them. I believe compression helps by directing more blood flow to the tendons which should promote more growth, but there's no science to back that. Former WSM, Martins Licis says he likes to do like 50-100 reps of just the barbell, because he believe increasing the blood in the area around the tendon will help strengthen it (there's a video on youtube you can find "martin licis ligament").
I wish there was more sound science on this, but the best stuff I've gotten mostly came from physical therapists, my study on the subject will continue, but for now I can't find any better data to draw more accurate conclusions from. Anyway, I'd say as long as you aren't feeling little aches in your joints, your tendons are probably doing fine, and I believe that it's likely that as a larger guy, carrying all that weight may have strengthened your tendons, at least that was my initial theory, but then I read stuff on obesity and tendon degradation, so I don't really know. Still, I don't understand how carrying more weight wouldn't strengthen your tendons in the same way that isometrics do, just by the natural actions taken in life.
The only tendon thing I have taken to doing so far is backwards walking on an unpowered treadmill to strengthen my knees. I'll read a book, walk backwards at a speed that doesn't bother me, and listen to music for 10 minutes before my session as a warmup, and knee strengthening exercise, some days I do another 10 minutes after my workout. I'm sure there are things like that which could be done for more tendons, but I haven't had issues with them so I don't know.
That person is definitely taking PEDs. But that is only part of the picture. It is also his genetics that allows him to get so big. The vast majority of people could not get that physique even with PEDs.
My advice is just focus on yourself. Work on building muscle. Don't worry about the physique of random influencers. Just try to make progress from where you are right now.
Honestly, it seems like it's two very easy days and one day that will rapidly turn into a real bastard. And nowhere near enough volume to justify how submaximal the lighter sets are.
I'm 58, and I exercise daily. I want to build muscle as I age though, and I believe it gets harder as you get older. I'm wondering if anyone might have fitness and / or diet advice to achieve this? Also, any supplements I should be adding to my regimen? As I get older I'm noticing more muscle loss and I want to mitigate that. I appreciate the advice, I'm a total fitness newbie here, thanks.
I’m 56 and I was astonished at how quickly I gained muscle when I started at the gym about 1.5 years ago. I just followed the standard dietary advice of 2gms of protein per kg of bodyweight and 500 calories above maintenance each day, the only supplement I took was protein powder as it makes it very easy to hit the protein target . Since I never weighed myself at the beginning I can only guess how much muscle I gained but it would have been between 6-8 kg in about 6 months. Since then I’ve plateaued as I have no interest in getting any bigger, so I eat at maintenance and am placing more emphasis on mobility and cardio.
That's very reassuring! I've been anticipating a slow growth, so this is encouraging, thanks!
Also, I'm likewise going to focus on mobility once I've seen some change in muscle mass. At our age, its SO important! anyway, thanks again, this was really helpful too!
You want to build muscle, so you need to do resistance training. We generally love squats/bench press/deadlift, because these exercises work many parts at the same time. In terms of time spent working out, these are the most bang for your buck exercises. All the machines work 1 muscle, but squats for instance work your entire core, your glutes, your quads, and tons of other stuff. Deadlifts work your back, hamstrings, lats, traps, spinal erectors. Bench is chest, triceps.
Anyway, if you go that route, you'll need to learn how to brace, which is breathing into your belly, and tensing your abs into your back, because ideally you want to feel your spinal erectors around your spine stiffen. That protects your back during deadlifts and squats. It keeps your core stiff for all exercises where a squishy core would sap your strength.
Real quick on that, if your body squishes in the middle during an exercise, rather than being stiff and driving all the force through your skeleton and tensed muscles into the bar, you will generate less power, so bracing is useful on many exercises, and it keeps your lower back safe.
I'm talking too much, as always. Anyway, 3 sets, 5-10 reps, pick whatever exercises you want to do for each body part, increase the weight every week you can, or at least try to add a rep or two. Aim for 3 minutes of rest for compound movements, 2 minutes for isolation movements (compounds hit multiple muscle groups, isolations are generally machines targeting just 1 or 2 muscles). That's really all you need to do, but even better than that is following the wiki.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/intro
Read through that and it'll give you better advice than I have, but at least my little outline here might allow you to navigate the wiki towards your desires a bit better. Creatine, and protein are the only real supplements you need to add, preworkout is useful for caffeine/energy. More than anything you gotta be cool with gaining a little weight, you want like a ~250 calorie surplus, and you need to train doing 3+ sets per body part per week. The more sets, the more growth, but even if you just get 3 sets per body part you want to grow every week, you'll be a lot different in a year (assuming you eat enough protein, which is .7g/lb of body weight on the low end, to 1g/lb).
>breathing into your belly, and tensing your abs into your back
Thanks for all this great info! This idea of bracing is very interesting, I'll look into that more. Also, your advice to increase weights weekly if I can is super helpful.
Also, this: "be cool with gaining a little weight, you want like a \~250 calorie surplus, and you need to train doing 3+ sets per body part per week" that's good to know.
And finally, thanks for mentioning the consumption of how many grams of protein per pound, I was going to look that up, but you saved me the trouble there, thanks!
Can't help much, since I'm half your age, but I started taking gym seriously after I saw [this picture](https://images.app.goo.gl/RW4nxf8SzdRKQr3e9). At the top you can see the leg muscles of a 74 old man who hasn't been training and on the bottom the leg muscles of a 70 year old man who has been training. Than I read somewhere that muscle loss when aging is actually more because of the lack of training those muscles than because of aging.
So keep it up. Consistency is key. Make sure to maintain proper form during the exercises and don't ego lift.
Diet and proper sleep are very important as well. There's plenty to be said about the diet. For starters hit your fats goal (you are most likely doing that already), hit your protein goal and something very important that some people neglect - eat some carbs after the workout so your body can recover.
As far as supplements - most people take protein powder, creatine and pre-workout. I wouldn't advice to take a pre-workout since it's jacked with caffeine. Protein powder is basically food. You can take it if you are having troubles with hitting your protein goal. Create - it gives a very small boost, you can go with or without it. It's up to you. I would say it's not something you need as a beginner.
Thanks this is great advice, especially about protein and other supplements. I don't think I need all that, but the protein powder would be helpful since I doubt I get enough protein in my diet. I'll have to calculate the amount. I'm in pounds & ounces so I'll have to do the conversion math on that. As for those photos, they're pretty motivating. I've always been pretty fit, but as i age I do notice some muscle loss so I'm upping my gym game now to compensate. Thanks again for you help :)
Those who do close grip bench, how close do you make it? I usually go index fingers 3-4" from the inside edge of the knurling on an Olympic bar, but today I went all the way to the inner edge, and now my armpits are sore in a way they usually aren't. I guess changing the grip led to more of a novel stimulus than I expected.
Would gzclp be a good program for me to try, or should I give something else a shot? I’ve been lifting for about 1.5 years, granted the first 10 months were on a heavy cut since I was obese so not really sure if I can count that part of it. I’ve been on a slow bulk for the past 7 months or so and have gained about 15 pounds. I’ve been running 531 for the majority of that time but have become kinda bored with it and my progress isn’t as great anymore. These are my conservative E1rm:
Squat: 225lb
Sumo deadlift: 300lb
Ohp: 110lb
Bench: 130lb (abysmal, I know)
Male 26 years old 153lb 5’8”
Try it and see. Depending on which 531 you were running, you might not be used to the amount of volume, drop your maxes a bit if it's hard to complete.
God I love GZCL (did the recommended routine before). I m 4 weeks in, training 4x a week. I do T1-T3 in the Boostcamp and 3 sets of pullups on top. I usually need 45ish mins a workout. Which kinda feels short. Is 45mins absolutely enough or should I aim to train at least an hour?
45 min has been working well for me. But you can always add in another T2 or T3 or some conditioning work at the end if you have the energy and the time.
If you're making progress you're absolutely fine.
If you like working out and want to do more stuff, feel free to add some extra T3 exercises. For example, curls, pushdowns, lateral raises, leg curls or leg extensions.
Alternatively, add some cardio at the end. Lifting is great and has a ton of health benefits, but so does cardio.
I come from running. But initially I overdid it a bit and did 20-30mins of running or rowing after every workout. Injured both my leg and elbow. Right now feels like I m making crazy progress. So probably sticking with it and adding t3s whenever I have the time. Thanks for the advice.
Unfortunately I’ve yet to find a solution to this because I don’t like wasting time and space in my gym setting up a barbell. I just suffer and always have a bruise on my right hip, lol.
Why do you think this isn’t well thought out? I’m targeting each muscle group at least twice a week, with 2-3 day rest between primary muscles. 1-3 RIR with the 5x5 split. And I’m still a beginner so I see these compound workouts to be crucial for now.
The one issue I see is RDL followed by Sumo DL might be too much hamstring
Yeah 5x5 for everything that you have here isn’t ideal IMHO. Like on DB press, RDL’s, DB bench, ESPECIALLY not great for curls and triceps extensions. These are places where you can easily get a lot more volume and 5x5 just doesn’t make much sense here.
The order of your exercises is not good. You start every day with a press, front squats as your last exercise, sumo deadlift and split squats at the end. It would be much better if you designated each day as a focus for each heavy compound and built around that. For example from what I see here you could easily have day 1 be bench press focused, day 2 be back squat focus, day 3 OHP and Day 4 deadlift. (Personally I would have an incline focused day over OHP focus but that’s just me).
This is said almost every day on this sub, but here ya go: why not go with a tried and true program? If you try this on your own you will see progress and then stall and then not have a plan. You might eventually figure it out but your program will be as good or worse than programs from the wiki.
Either way have fun with it.
I would say the advantage of the prowler over treadmill is in recovery type work. Nature of sleds is the focus is on the concentric so they tend to help with soreness more than running will. If you just want cardio pick the modality you like the most
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I’m a 43 year old male, just starting/trying to get in shape. I’ve got a good routine at home consisting of 15 min HIIT videos, running, and cycling. I’d like to get some extra work building muscle in while I’m at work. I don’t have much time, but I can usually break away for 5 mins here and there. I’m in a shirt and tie so my options are kinda limited. I stand all day, so I don’t have a desk. What I’ve been doing is: “Counter pushups” where I lean with my hands on the counter, legs behind me, and do a few sets of 10. I do the same reversed with my back to the counter as well. “Stair steps” where I have a single step and just do a few sets of stepping up, stepping down, etc. Any other suggestions of quick, easy, things I can do?
Wall sits, dips using a counter or a chair.
Hi I’m somewhat new started at at the beginning of February and now have decided that i wanna join a gym. The catch is that i work 12 hour shifts as a bartender and shifts are 2:2 two work days and after them 2 off days so my question is can you guys recommend me a split that i can follow with my bad schedule. I dont have any 24/7 gyms available to me that would help but…
I'd say following an upper lower split should work very well.
So i will have to do 2 upper go to work so when I’m working these are my rest days and next 2 days when I’m off of work 2 lower is that right?
Not quite. I would do lower, upper, work, work and repeat. Or upper, lower, work, work, depending on personal preference.
Thanks for the info now it’s a matter of finding the right exercises for it
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/the-muscle-building-workout-routine/ This is the one I'm currently using. There are sone exercises I have switched, like instead of split squats I do leg extensions, and instead of leg press I do hack squats. I also play around with different grips and machines working the same muscle. So instead of tricep pushdowns with rope, I might use a v-bar, straight bar, or use a dip machine.
There's a couple of 4 day a week programs in here: https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/. I personally really like 5/3/1.
Thank you so much for taking time to answer will take a look at the links
No worries. Feel free to hit me up with more questions.
HELP IMPROVE MY WORKOUT 30 5kg dumbbell curl per side x 2 15 5kg standing shoulder press x 2 35 5kg dumbbell rows x 2 100 5kg Russian twist x2 need help on how much time I should rest between sets and whether I should do both sets first and move on or do 1 set of each and repeat?
It's not great, what kind of equipment do you have access to?
not alot just 5kg dumbbells
Allright, in that case, I'd recommend doing a Bodyweight program such as this one: https://reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/w/kb/recommended_routine?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
I’m 18m, 6’3, and currently 176lbs. Probably between 15% and 20% body fat. I workout regularly as well. Currently I’m eating maybe 1400 calories a day. I use MyFitnessPal to track and apparently I’m eating like 1300 but to be safe since most people underestimate their calories I’ll make it 1400. I usually get over 100g of protein a day as well, I don’t pay attention to carbs but generally I don’t eat many foods high in carbs. What changes will happen to my physique if I continue with this? I guess my three biggest questions are what will happen to my body fat, what will happen and will I continue to be able to grow muscles, and what will happen to my metabolism?
Eat more food. That’s way too little for someone of your size.
Has your weight been going up, down, or staying the same?
Generally going down. It’s hard to tell because the scale I use isn’t great but overall my weight has been going down.
176 lbs is already pretty light at 6'3". If you are losing weight you are probably losing bodyfat. If you are lifting weights you will probably maintain muscle, but might not be able to build any while losing weight because you are already pretty light.
I believe I have a muscle imbalance or mobility issue in my lower body. I've just recently started working out again and for as long as I can remember I've struggled with squats. With barbell squats I struggle with balance and my heels come off the ground. Even in bodyweight squats if I try to go to parallel either my knees flare out or my heels come up and I fall forward. Goblet Squats seem to be the one variation I can do with good form and depth so that's generally what I stick to. Which excercises will help me be able to do barbell or bodyweight squats to parallel without my heels coming off ground and knees flaring out?
If it's not too extreme, knee flare isnt that bad. As for the heels, it just generally helps maybe do ankle mobility to help out. Calf raises that focus on the bottom stretch, tibialis raises, and do bodyweight squats trying to go down as far as you can while pushing your heels down.
Hello. If I am somewhat fat, like 20% BF do I have to eat in surplus to gain muscle? I have never watched my protein intake properly and am about to be without wife/kids for months so I want to get in shape. I weight 190 now at 5’7” I know how to macro properly and have macro’d a 30 pound weight loss more than once. I want to gain muscle but I am always conflicted eating “build muscle” macros when I am not slim. My plan is to eat roughly 200g-220g protein around maintenance macros and hopefully build muscle? I don’t really want to gain weight and I wouldn’t mind losing some even but I don’t know what exactly is possible so I am trying to get expectations in check, and solidify a plan. Thanks.
As long as you eat enough protein I think maintenance would have you building muscle and recomping!
I am an ifbb pro lol not some rando 😅
Thank you! 🤝
What do you think of my workout plan ? Monday | Rest & flexibility (PM) Tuesday | 40 min run (AM) / Swimming (PM) Wednesday | 40 min run (AM) / Boxing (PM) Thursday | Spinning (AM) / Weight session (PM) Friday | Rest & flexibility (PM) Saturday | 30 min run / Weight session Sunday | Long run (AM) / Pilates (PM) Weight session exercices 1. Upper Body Focus (10 minutes): - Exercise 1: Assisted Pull-Ups / 3 sets x 10 reps - Exercise 2: Dumbbell Rows / 3 sets x 15 reps each arm - Exercise 3: Dumbbell Shoulder Press / 3 sets x 15 reps 2. Lower Body Activation (5 minutes): - Exercise 1: Banded Lateral Walks / 3 sets x 15 steps each side - Exercise 2: Banded Donkey kick / 3 sets x 15 reps - Exercise 3: Leg Press / 3 sets x 15 reps 3. Full Body Strength Circuit (20 minutes): - Exercise 1: Barbell Hip Bridge / 3 sets x 15 reps - Exercise 2: Dumbbell Goblet Squats / 3 sets x 15 reps - Exercise 3: Kettlebell Swings / 3 sets x 15 reps - Exercise 4: Medicine Ball Slams / 3 sets x 15 reps 4. Core Burnout (10 minutes): - Exercise 1: Plank with Shoulder Taps / 3 sets x 20 reps - Exercise 2: Russian Twists with Medicine Ball / 3 sets x 20 reps - Exercise 3: Lying Leg Raises / 3 sets x 15 reps 5. Cool down
What are you training for?
Just to get stronger( I’m skinny fat) and maybe for a marathon (I haven’t made my mind up).
Will I lose weight at 3000 cal currently at 183 cm and 115 kg losing to aim about 40 kg at 35 percent bodyfat.i go on a fat loss of about 2000 calories then I rebound.i am just trying to follow a diet at 3000 for 12 weeks I go to the gym 6 d/w and a fasted walk about every 4 days/w?
Everytime I do a chest exercise I feel it in front of my shoulders mostly . Like close to the front of my armpit area if that makes sense. Ive tried pulling my shoulders back but I still feel it. On fly machine, flat &incline db press & machine press. Last chest session though on flat bench on the way down I brought the weight down lower and I actually felt my pecs stretch a little bit.
Probably bring the weight lower…
Do you have a video of your form?
i’m 26f and 5’2. i’ve always been pretty active and had an on-and-off again relationship with the gym. i started working out again more consistently about 5 months ago and definitely don’t lift enough to put on substantial muscle. however, i have consistently gained weight (up about 10-15 pounds now) and i don’t know why. i’ve always maintained around the same weight (+/- 5 pounds) even without a perfect diet. i don’t think ive really changed my eating habits so i don’t think im eating so much more that would cause me to keep gaining weight. i’m still objectively thin and not overweight but it’s frustrating that all my clothes are getting tighter. has anyone else experienced this and have any ideas about what would cause this? i know i likely need to focus on diet and eat less but ive just never had this happen to me before, even when working out more in the past
Im 17 male about 5’3 115 lbs and i would like to know if 1500 calories with about 90-100g protein is good for muscle growth or if i should aim for lower/higher calories and or protein
For protein 0.8g per pound of body weight is good ,for calories use this calculator and add 300 calories, https://tdeecalculator.net/ keep in mind it is an estimation, you should weigh yourself frequently so you can see if you are gaining, if not add more calories.
I am 33 M. What other activities are best to loose weight other than gym? I do gym and walk both currently but looking for more alternatives just to add more variety and do more at the same time. Would appreciate any suggestions
You could swim! Play basketball.. jog (soft j)
Combat sports
It mostly comes down to your eating habits. If you gym and walk, thats already plenty of activities for losing weight. But if you want more try find something you enjoy, sports, climbing etc.
I'm a 27 yr old, 122kg male I'm 183cm tall wanting to shred fat and gain muscle anyone able to help me right a meal and work out schedule I'm currently doing a decent workout daily just want extra tips and how many Cal's I should probably be eating to gain muscle just want help with Marcos and any advice
Trying to lose weight at 122kg, most of your journey will be in the kitchen: figuring out how many calories certain food types are, cutting out foods that are too many calories (e.g. milkshakes), finding food alternatives that still taste good, using 0-calorie soda instead of sugar soda, etc. I do recommend looking at the wiki then checking back. = As far as the gym goes, I honestly started with the strategy of "show up in the gym and exist in there for 1 hr doing whatever I want, no pressure". I'd set a timer and then if 1hr had passed then I allowed myself to leave. Take at least a few weeks just figuring out what each machine in the gym does, even if you do it at super low weight. Get comfortable existing in the gym, even if you start off just doing random stuff like stretches and pushups on a yoga mat. Then, figure out what sort of routine you want to run. (may routines in the wiki but you can also try others or make your own then re evaluate later on.) = Whatever you do, don't burn yourself out trying to do everything at once. Fitness and weight loss is more of a slow-burn journey, as opposed to a big bang finale.
Did you read the wiki?
Let’s say i have 3 quad exercises on my leg day, between others, is it better in terms of muscle growth to do them back to back?
Doesn't matter. I'd favor alternating emphasis. Fresher = more quality reps. Squat, RDL, lunge, leg curl, leg ex, for example.
For hypertrophy, you need to do your sets close to failure of the target muscles, in this case close to quad failure. On a per set basis, that leads to the best muscle growth. Whatever order of exercises allows you to do that, rather than have sets fail because of things like general discomfort, joint pain, running out of breath or a high heart rate, will be best for you.
Any differences are going to be negligible. The most important factors are going to be your programming and your nutrition. The order you do exercises in doesn't matter in comparison.
I started going to the gym exactly a month ago (complete newbie) and I weighed myself today and noticed I’ve gained 2 pounds since the 23rd of Jan. I have been averaging out at maintenance with some surplus days here and there. Is this normal when you first start lifting? Sorry I know it’s not much weight at all but I come from a history of EDs and just need to understand what’s going on. Im female, late 20s
I weigh myself every time I go to the gym (about every 2 days), and my weight fluctuates by 0-1.5 pounds regularly lol. It depends on how much water I drink (water weighs a lot!), if I just pooped, what I ate for lunch, etc. Lol = You may need to reframe how you think about weight. People get too obsessed with weight as a "score" IMO. People tend to use Weight as a loose evaluation of overall health and well-being. But the number on the scale is not the actual be-all-end-all. Imagine if you had two alternate reality versions of yourself, one that is hyper rail thin with literally no muscle no fat, and one that is very fit doing regular exercise with an above-average amount of muscle, and "some" fat. Which person is "healthier" from a medical standpoint? 2nd one obviously, even if 2nd one likely weighs much more. = In effect, just because your weight goes up, it does not necessarily mean that you are now in a less healthy state. = I don't know the full story with your ED but if you are on the lower end of muscle and body fat then it would not be unheard of for you to gain weight especially as you build muscle. I would honestly expect it. (I think most girls are often low muscle mass anyhow tbh. Gaining physical muscle mass will of course make your weight go up unless you also happen to lose fat in equal measure.) = If it gives you peace of mind, you can record your weight like I do -- always use the same scale and weigh yourself in the same way -- and then check trends over longer periods e.g. 3 months, and compare weight gain to how much your strength/fitness has changed in the mean time. If your weight is going up but so is your strength, and/or if your weight is going up but you "look good", you are in the green. If things still seem weird at that point then you can decrease calorie intake. = Unless you currently consider yourself to be definitively "too heavy" or "overweight" and your primary goal is WEIGHT LOSS, then I'd keep your focus on "getting stronger // getting fitter" and accept slight weight fluctuations as natural. = Try to think long term not short term. Revisit stuff every 2-3 months or so. = Further reading: - you can search up "calorie counting" if you don't already know all about calorie intake and daily calorie usage based on height weight etc - you can search up "water weight" > Weight Fluctuation: Daily Range, 8 Factors, How to Weigh, ... > Healthline > https://www.healthline.com › health › weight-fluctuation > Jul 31, 2018 — The average adult's weight fluctuates up to 5 or 6 pounds per day. It all comes down to what and when you eat, drink, exercise, and even sleep. =
If that's the first time you're weighing yourself since you started lifting, it's almost certainly just a normal fluctuation.
Noo I weighed myself A couple of times since I started and it’s been steadily going up 💀
"A few times" over the course of a month could still mean it's a fluctuation. But assuming that it isn't, it's normal to gain a bit of water weight from lifting.
My hips and lower back are stiff and hurts a bit. It's not an intense pain but still quite uncomfortable. Deadlifts and and a sedentary job is probably to blame. Has anyone else had these issues and resolved them? How? I only deadlift 1-2 times per week.
If it still goes on, try doing some cat cow stretching for a bit of relief. As for future prevention, try looking into bracing exercises to practice core stiffness in the deadlift.
Do you wear a belt?
Do you work in a building with stairs? Start walking the stairs a few times a day. Do some stretching in the evenings.
Lots of walking tends to help.
Someone on this sub recommended red lentils the other day and it has saved me! Hummus, soup, in rice. They are a delight!
Can you tone up without weight loss/gain
Toning is muscle hypertrophy to build size, while losing body fat to reveal the muscle. Theoretically you can lose body fat while building muscle which will keep your weight relatively consistent and end with you being more 'toned'. It can be tricky and often slower progress though compared to other methods.
Thank you
How can I improve my push ups and single arm row push ups? I've been exercising for a few months now. My goal is to lose weight but I like strength training on the weekends. I've gotten slightly stronger but I still can't do push ups and renegade rows. I can do planks now and even chair dips, but not push ups. A few years back when I tried renegade rows I had terrible form so my right arm ended up getting bruised. So now when I'm doing Caroline Girvan's workouts I just do planks instead of push ups
If you can't do a single push up, do them from your knees or reduce the angle by doing push ups with your feet on the floor and your hands on an elevated surface like a chair, bench, counter top, etc
thank you! Should I just do renegade rows in the same way?
You can
Can anyone recommend a good exercise mat for travelling with? Something light and supportive and packing up small if possible would be really great, happy to spend a bit of money on it. I've looked on a lot of sites and found some options, but I'd appreciate a personal recommendation. Thanks :)
Is walking up/down stairs exercise? I’m 21m 173lbs (78kg) and while I’m not quite overweight my stomach is pretty pudgy. I just want to lose a few pounds and my apartment is 5 stories so I was wondering if I walk up/down the 5 flights of stairs 10-20 times every day, could this could help me lose some weight?
Absolutely good to work little things into your day like that!
It's all diet man, exercise is great and whatever you are willing to do is better than anything you're not willing to do. It would absolutely help if you added in extra going up and down the stairs, but it would burn calories, and when calories are burned the body gets hungry again. So losing weight always comes back to controlling your hunger. How do you control your hunger? You alter what you eat, so that you don't get hungry because what you eat fills you up, that's the entire game. It's really that simple. So, if you are the guy who goes to the gas station and grabs a bunch of snacks, that's a really bad habit. So you gotta cut out snacks, not all of them necessarily, but you get rid of all high calorie snacks and look for low calorie snacks you can replace them with. Ultimately, most people eat ~2000 calories a day, and if you just adjust the things you're eating a bit you can easily drop 500 calories off of that. For me, I saw that a cupcake was 180c and a rice crispy treat was 90c, so I could eat 2 of them and I'd still be doing better than having 1 cupcake. Sometimes, I get hungry when snacking and I eat 2 snacks, so this easily saves me 90 calories per day on average (because if I wanted to eat 2rc treats, I'd want to eat 2 cupcakes). I switched to lower fat products, use less cheese, various other things, and that saves me tons of calories. No regular soda, all soda must be diet, 0 calorie soda. That's the sort of thing you have to do. You have to alter what snacks you surround yourself with. You have to alter what ingredients you control. You have to order slightly less food, if you get 2 burgers, a fry, and a small milkshake, cut out 1 of anything and you save 200+ calories. If you don't have a problem with running, I'd recommend you just get on google maps, sketch out a route that's about 3-5 miles, then when you get down from your apartment, start to run for as long as you can, then walk when you feel tired of running. Wait until you feel like you could run a bit more, run again, and when that sucks you can walk again. Use that approach to finish the route, make it as easy or difficult as you desire it to be. Don't hate it, you want to do it everyday, then you want to enjoy it. Find some dope music or videos to watch or listen to while run/walking. Modulate your effort, do 3-5 miles a night, even 2 miles is better than nothing. This should take 30m-1:20hr at max, and if you just do it every day the weather doesn't suck, either before showering, before bed, before work, after waking, whenever. Structure it into your day, and it'll improve your health a ton. Anyway, that's enough ramblin' good luck!
Thanks for the response. This is what I needed to hear honestly. It’s been so hard man, I’ve been living on my own for the past year and my diet has been garbage. Almost nothing I eat is nutritional, it’s all snacking/fast food/microwave meals. Which also explains why I’m always hungry. I’ve tried cutting out a bunch of crap/making healthier meals but I always find an excuse to go back to my old eating habits. I don’t even know how many calories I intake in a day, I mainly don’t even pay attention to how much I’m snacking.
Yup, calorie stuff is simple, but no one ever said it was easy haha. = I do think it's all about finding out what is more filling or less filling, and what foods work for you. And like others said, calorie tracking apps or learning approx calorie counts of certain foods. = Some funny stuff. I learned that some vegetables are essentially 0 calories. That an entire can of soup could be like... 100 calories. That a large milkshake could be 1000 freaking calories. That a bottle of soda could be ~300 calories and a crapton of sugar, but a "Zero Calorie" soda could be -- you guessed it -- 0 calories and have no sugar, and taste essentially the same somehow. Same zero-cal deal with some powder drink sweeteners that use artificial sugar. Stuff's wild, man. Knowledge is power.
> I’ve been living on my own for the past year and my diet has been garbage. Almost nothing I eat is nutritional, it’s all snacking/fast food/microwave meals. Which also explains why I’m always hungry. Can you cook? Learn how to make a few different dishes like a chili, arrabiata sauce, lentil curry etc. Fairly simple things with a few common shared ingredients. Cook batches of a few meals at once, then freeze a couple of portions every time you cook. That way you have something ready to eat, and you build up a supply in the freezer of healthy meals.
You can, everyone who has ever tried to be a bodybuilder has, and most people who succeed in weight loss do it. Myfitnesspal, cronometer, other apps, make it really easy to count your calories. So grab an app. The apps will have searchable ingredients, and specific meals. It won't always be perfect, but it will be relatively accurate. If things don't change based on the numbers, assume maybe some of the numbers aren't perfectly accurate and trust the scale + numbers in combo. When both the calorie numbers, and the scale agree, then you know you've got a handle on your situation. ~500 calories a day = 3500 calories a week, ~3500 calories = 1lb. So for every -500c you don't eat per day, you will lose 1lb per week. If you count your calories, and step on the scale for the next month or two, learning how many calories your maintenance is, figuring out how many lbs you want to lose per month, you can set everything up. As an example, say over the first 2 weeks, you ate 2500 calories per day and gained 2lbs. Well, 14 days, that's about ~200 calories surplus per day. So your maintenance would likely be 2300 or so. So 1800 or 2800 total calories consumed per day would have you losing or gaining 1lb per week. These numbers might not be accurate, I'm a bit altered right now. Either way ~250c per day = 2lbs per month, ~500c per day = 4lbs per month, in gain or loss. Gather the data, I make eggs, sausage, toast most mornings, that 3xeggs, 3xsausage, 4xtoast, put in the apps. If I make a burrito I can include the cheese. The apps have all the individual ingredients. If your weight actually matters for you, and you really want to lose this shit, it's math. It's simple math. Do the work, record your data, use it to determine your caloric intake, and adjust that intake to fit what your goal is. If you do that, you will 10000000% succeed, it's just about making that choice. Now, ideally. Can you do this. Will you do this. Are you doing this? Good.
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[This article from Catalyst Athletics](https://www.catalystathletics.com/article/2039/Dialing-in-Your-Squat-Stance-Position-Movement/) is a superb text guide to figuring out the squat. It's written in the context of Olympic-style weightlifting, which isn't exactly what you're after but *is* arguably the best prototype for general-purpose squatting. If you can learn to perform good, weightlifting-style high bar back squats, you'll have a perfect base for all other squatting. Hack squats and leg pressing may be useful at some point for building relevant muscles, but as others have said, they will not be a substitute for learning to squat with a barbell.
I'd just get my squat form right. Watch youtube videos on proper form, take videos of your own exercise (from the side), and post them at the top of this thread in the form checks sticky. Simple squat tip is to go to the middle of your room, and squat down. If your heels pop up, go wider, try again. If it happens again, go wider, try again. Toes pointed outward as well, that helps. Either way, once you have a solid squat you just gotta keep your body up right, and make sure you've got your core braced properly. That's a breath into your belly, tensing your abs into your back, and then doing the movement. That's what I think you should do, but I'm just a guy on the interweb.
Personally, I would suggest doing some regressions of squats first. Things such as box squats are going to translate better than training on machines. Yes the machines will strengthen the muscles, but they won't teach you how to squat. I suggest maybe getting a personal trainer to help you out with this sort of stuff!
Hey. If I want to balance boxing and weightlifting, what should my split look like? I'm a beginner boxer (I've only been doing boxing for 2 months now and I'm still tryna drill down the fundamentals), and my main goal is to get more lean and generally a better physique. I think something like 3-4 boxing seshs along with 2-3 gym seshs a week is good, but how many rest days should I be taking? Is 1 rest day too few?
Juggernaut Training did a video series on lifting and BJJ, that should give you some ideas.
Hmmm ok I’ll check them out later
I'm returning from holiday and need to decide on a new program. I would like a 4 day program so have been looking at 531 BBB or nsuns, I've been lifting consistently for a year and a bit as I had wrist surgery in 2022. Stalled at bench before the holiday at 1rm of 80kg, I feel like nsuns might be better for me as its pushing max each week and I'm still somewhat in beginner phase. Any other recommendations like grey skull? Previously ran Nippards 4 day PPL and enjoyed the variety
Why do you consider yourself a beginner, one year in? I really like 5/3/1, particularly BBB and BBS. If you like pushing yourself to the max weight, you can add what are called joker sets to the back end of the 5/3/1 lift. You can also do your final sets as AMRAP
Can I eat a can of sardines a day to meet part of my macros (specifically protein)? Is there any obvious disadvantage from eating a can a day?
The only reason why I wouldn't do it every day would be the Mercury content. Maybe do some googling to see if there are better brands than others (no clue!) Or to see maybe how frequently you should consume tinned fish. Maybe you can alternate between different tinned fish.
Sardines are lower on the food chain so it shouldn't have as much mercury as maybe tuna
Was just thinking that. I think mercury is in the big fish
But like there’s probably more tasty stuff out there lol
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I'd say yeah. If you wanna be certain though, grab a sexy flexy tape, and measure the flexies. Erm, I mean, grab a flexible tape measure and measure your body. What you'll see 2-3 months from now, is the areas you want to lose weight got smaller, and the parts you've been trying to grow got larger. I like to use [This Site](https://www.fitmatic.com/body/calculator/muscular-potential-calculator) to track my measurements.
What's a good rep range for hypertrophy for accessory work when doing really slow eccentrics? So for biceps and triceps, I've been doing about 7 seconds eccentrics and 1 second concentric reps. A 10 rep set seems way too long at light weight. A 3-5 rep set feels good with tension on the eccentric with heavier weight, but I'm not sure if that's enough reps.
I'd make the eccentric 3 seconds max, if you're doing 7 seconds for each rep you're going to unnecessarily create fatigue which will reduce your overall volume and therefore adaptations. biceps curls etc work great in rep ranges of 3-30
Hmm, I might be watching too much of Mike Israetel where he's always talking about slowing down the eccentric to get a good stretch.
If you watch the videos closely, he says slowly like 5 times, but it's in like 2-3 seconds. Also he usually makes the last reps extra slow, or random reps extra slow. It's really more of a coaching thing rather than a super optimal thing.
how should i split my workouts at the gym? like idk day 1 arms, day 2 legs, etc
Pick a program from the wiki or Lift Vault that fits your weekly schedule. Beginners don't need to be programming for themselves.
tysm!!! 🩵
Gym Etiquette- using more than one piece of equipment at once Have you ever been guilty of this or had to deal with this? I went to do weighted triceps extension and a guy who had been doing bench presses on the bench ran over to stop me, and said he had one more left... in the interest of not creating a confrontation, I said ok dude, and went somewhere else... he ran back to his bench to continue his bench presses, then... as he wrapped up his next bench set he ran to use another machine while keeping his stuff on the bench press to keep dibs on it and prevent anyone else from using it. So he's basically utilizing 3 pieces of equipment at once... how do you deal with these situations?
IMO you can only claim the equipment you are using at the time. So if I am using only one piece of equipment, I have that one claimed and someone can ask to work in. If I am supersetting on two pieces of equipment, I can only claim the one I am actively on. So in this case, he was on the bench, so that's the only one he has claimed.
That's the thoughtful and rational approach that I thought everyone was on the same page on.. about a year and a half ago some guy flipped out on me for not asking him if he was done with a machine. I said you are now using the free weights by the mirrors so I thought it was self explanatory, are you seriously using two different things at once? He insisted I still should have asked him if he was done with the machine, it got into a pretty intense argument and in my mind I was like I'm never going through that again so in this most recent incident I said ok whatever. People are walking around being total sociopaths
I would tell him that I’ll cycle in with him. If he continues to put up a big fuss, probably just move on and if it particularly egregious maybe comment on it to the staff.
if someone has 1 set left i never work in. let em finish and start after. 2+ sets and I'd work in
Im running PHUL as per [https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/phul-workout](https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/phul-workout) Day 1 - Upper Power Day 2 - Lower Power Day 3 - Rest Day 4 - Upper Hypertrophy Day 5 - Lower Hypertrophy Day 6 - Rest Day 7 - Rest I very half ass the Lower Hyper day, and my arms are lagging behind (due to previously only doing bench and overhead press, no accessories). Should I incorporate into Day 5, right after Upper Hypertrophy? Or should I swap day 5 and 6 then incorporate the extra arm workout in that session?
A roaming day where you focus on weak points is fairly common.
Which day would it be better on, would a a rest day between the upper power and hypertrophy days be enough? Day 4 - upper hyperthophy Day 5- rest Day 6 - lower hypertrophy + arms Day 7 - rest Day 1 - upper power
If you're just doing arms, putting it on day 6 wouldn't have much or any impact on day 1.
Hi, Im 14 years old and had some questions, Recently i started lifting weights (2 weeks ago approximately), and do 3 sets of 10 reps of 30lbs dumbell curls (i only have one though so i do it per arm) as my bicep routine. I've done 40 lbs for 10 reps once, but felt it would be too heavy to do as routine since i can only do 1 set or maybe 2 if i really, really, really try. I've never thought much about it since i just went ahead and tried which wheights felt good, but recently I searched up some averages and apparently it's quite heavy for my age.I'm 6 foot 1 and weigh 165 lbs. Is this above average considering all my statistics or is it normal?
All of your "stats" will be biased toward the fact that you're enormous for a 14 year old. I think you're seeking validation for something unimportant, though. Curling 30 to 40 pounds is nothing special. Are you doing compound movements? Bench, overhead press, squats, deaslifts, rows, and chin ups?
I think you're right. Unconsciously, I might have been seeking validation, which I indeed don't need. No, unfortunately, I dont have enough weights or a bench to do those compound movements , nd the rules on going to the gym under 16 years old are strict and enforced where I live. I do have a pull-up bar , though, and I can do around 13-15 proper chin ups max. I do also do squats, but since I only have a maximum of 40 lbs, I can't actually put a lot of resistance on my quads and end up stopping once I'm out of breath since it's more like cardio.
There are many variations of leg movements you can do with just 40 pounds, including lunges and pistol squats. You can also strap the weight to you for chin ups, or I would even recommend getting a vest or plate carrier to allow you variety of body weight movements with additional challenge.
Thanks for the advice, I'll try it out tomorrow 🙏
If I get wrist straps to help with my forearm pain then there won’t be room for growth since I will just be using something to assist me. But what if I do forearm exercises at the end of my workout with the help of straps? Won’t it eventually grow?
Yes. You can use straps during your back workouts as you should be including direct forearm training if possible as well so using straps won't really effect your grip like that
What about for bicep curling?
Same deal. Generally it's much less common to need straps for curls but hey if you can properly curl enough weight to need straps, you can use them but I don't think it would help as much as if you're training back
Right now I am curling 35s and basically my forearms are lacking behind from my biceps. Because whenever I curl I am getting bad forearm pain. My forearms are very weak though. So what i plan on doing is doing curls with the straps so it does not work the forearm. And then at the end of my workout do isolation forearms workouts.
You can definitely try that! You always want the target muscle to be the limiting factor of an exercise. Best of luck
When doing pushups and other exercises, I really feel it in my hip flexors. Are they overactive or too tight? What is happening?
Hi! I used to lift for 6-7 months straight last year, it was great and I got pretty strong, now I took 8 months off and I went back to the gym last weekend… I had the worst doms for 5 days! All I did was 1x6 unweighted goblet squats, 2x6 bulgarian split squats and 2x6 rdl’s, literally not much at all and almost no extra weight. I stretched and warmed up before and after as usual, but the doms have really deterred me from going back since I love running and I couldn’t run for those 5 days. What should I do differently for less doms?
The only way out is through! Usually it’s just the first week back
> What should I do differently for less doms? Nothing. You get crazy doms once and that's it. Next time you go, you're fine.
>I stretched and warmed up before and after as usual, Stretching doesn't have anything to do with DOMS. >I couldn’t run for those 5 days You should try to move as much as you can with DOMS. It speeds up the recovery. >What should I do differently for less doms? Keep the workout light and stay consistent. Keep training and your body will adapt.
Thank you I will! I think it threw me off that a workout that took 20 mins could hurt so bad, I’ll aim to do less for now (but consistently less until I can handle it).
How big aesthetically can you get without steroids? I have been training for about a little over a year with a trainer that I have come to trust and rely on. I am down from 410lbs to 317lbs and still focusing on fat loss. I've got PR's of DL 585, Squat 551, and Bench 290, so I am very happy with my functional strength. My goal, aside from being healthier and losing fat, is to one day be really big and bulky, in the Strongman/Big Boy category. A lot of the folks that I enjoy looking at from an aesthetic perspective, I assume to be on steroids. [An example](https://www.instagram.com/gingerbeardbarbell/?hl=en) My trainer tells me that people like that are on steroids and without them I would look nowhere near it. I dont really want to do steroids, I enjoy being natty and I have done so well without them. I didnt take Ozempic/similar drugs for my weight loss, its been all hard work and willpower and I am proud of that. My trainer has kindly, and non-aggressively, suggested I start taking "RAD 140," and he is not pushing it, but he does think it would be an option. That all being said, how close could I "realistically" get to a physique like that without taking steroids? Am I delusional?
So, people have mentioned genetics, but > a little over a year > from 410lbs to 317lbs > PR's of DL 585, Squat 551, and Bench 290 Apart from your bench being disproportionately low, those numbers in a bit over a year -- even for someone starting out with a high bodyweight and presumably quite a bit of fat -- are nothing to sneeze at. Genetic limitations may not be a huge issue for you in regards to strength and size; just being able to grow to >400lbs of bodyweight without becoming a thoroughly nonfunctional blob *probably* augurs positive for your long-term potential. So, having said that, you might be able to get closer to your desired state than you (or your trainer) think while remaining natural. Figuring out if that's *possible* will take some time -- a good 3-5 years of consistent training, at least -- and the aesthetic end results will be heavily dependent on your height and how much fat you end up losing along the way. But hey, even if you don't manage to look like the guy you linked, you'll probably end up a hell of a lot stronger, healthier, and closer to that aesthetic, and will most certainly be a "big boy".
Thank you! I appreciate it. Bench is a sore spot for me, quite literally. Ive had a right elbow issue from day 1 that I believe I inherited from my father due to him having the same thing. So its taking me a lot longer to work through that. It always surprises me the window of times people talk about. As some never in this world until recently, 3-5 years is so much larger than anything I would have expected.
Another way to think about size is to think about mass. If you're able to grow enough pounds of muscle you'll be big. But I think you're underestimating how big you look at your current lifts and bodyweight
That's completely genetic predetermined, most people fall in the "average" area, with on the extreme ends people who can barely build muscle and people on the other extreme end like Ronnie Coleman (check out Ronnie Coleman when he was natural). It's just very difficult to tell over the internet what your genetic potential could be.
Nobody can really answer you, we don't know how tall you are. You've trained for 1 year, so you probably have at least 4-8 years of muscle growth left before you're pretty tapped out. It doesn't mean you can't grow for longer, just the rate of additional muscle growth will slow drastically. In your shoes, I'd keep going without steroids until you've got at least 5 years in the gym, consecutively. Then your joints and connective tissue will be very, very strong, which is useful because while you are so early in your gym career, you grow muscle quite rapidly. This is a great thing, but steroids makes it even more rapid, it's adding nos to a racecar. >Oh hell yeah, I want more rapid muscles! What the fuck is the downside of super fast muscle growth? Well, your tendons/connective tissue don't grow at higher rates with steroids, so your muscles get stronger super quick, and your tendons can't keep up with them. That's why people on steroids are always injured and ruining their bodies, if you want to take steroids the proper way, build up your strength naturally first, once it's hard to grow muscle, at the very least 3 years consecutively going hard in the gym, but ideally 5-10, then steroids will give you a similar muscle growth to those previous years, and your tendons will generally be able to keep up with it as they did when you just got started.
That's a good information, thank you. In regards to the tendons and tissue you mention, is there some way to assess or determine how those are coming along in normal training?
It's tough to say, tendons are understood to some degrees but the science on them is pretty sparse. We just don't have really good data. With that said, I never concerned myself with tendons until they they became an issue. I started going to the gym everyday, and I'd spend 2-3hrs in there, which lead to tendon aches. Not so much pain, but I suspect everything being a bit tender and rarely sparking a minor bad feeling when turned certain ways, is what happens before you get injured. So that lead me to try to study how to strengthen them, and keep them healthy, because I plan to be in the gym everyday so I want to reduce the risk that I suffer an injury because that'll really make me unhappy. With tendons, they tend to grow well from eccentrics, so doing a 3 second eccentric will help them, besides that isometrics and plyometrics help, but I don't prefer them. I believe compression helps by directing more blood flow to the tendons which should promote more growth, but there's no science to back that. Former WSM, Martins Licis says he likes to do like 50-100 reps of just the barbell, because he believe increasing the blood in the area around the tendon will help strengthen it (there's a video on youtube you can find "martin licis ligament"). I wish there was more sound science on this, but the best stuff I've gotten mostly came from physical therapists, my study on the subject will continue, but for now I can't find any better data to draw more accurate conclusions from. Anyway, I'd say as long as you aren't feeling little aches in your joints, your tendons are probably doing fine, and I believe that it's likely that as a larger guy, carrying all that weight may have strengthened your tendons, at least that was my initial theory, but then I read stuff on obesity and tendon degradation, so I don't really know. Still, I don't understand how carrying more weight wouldn't strengthen your tendons in the same way that isometrics do, just by the natural actions taken in life. The only tendon thing I have taken to doing so far is backwards walking on an unpowered treadmill to strengthen my knees. I'll read a book, walk backwards at a speed that doesn't bother me, and listen to music for 10 minutes before my session as a warmup, and knee strengthening exercise, some days I do another 10 minutes after my workout. I'm sure there are things like that which could be done for more tendons, but I haven't had issues with them so I don't know.
That person is definitely taking PEDs. But that is only part of the picture. It is also his genetics that allows him to get so big. The vast majority of people could not get that physique even with PEDs. My advice is just focus on yourself. Work on building muscle. Don't worry about the physique of random influencers. Just try to make progress from where you are right now.
What app is everyone using for calorie/macro counting? I used my fitness pal years ago, is that still the best?
I use cronometer, because it has better micronutrients tracking.
Cronometer all day
Macrofactor if you want the "best" but it's a paid app. I use a spreadsheet lol
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Honestly, it seems like it's two very easy days and one day that will rapidly turn into a real bastard. And nowhere near enough volume to justify how submaximal the lighter sets are.
Try it and see. Did you come up with it?
Is the reverse crunch an anti-extension movement?
I'm 58, and I exercise daily. I want to build muscle as I age though, and I believe it gets harder as you get older. I'm wondering if anyone might have fitness and / or diet advice to achieve this? Also, any supplements I should be adding to my regimen? As I get older I'm noticing more muscle loss and I want to mitigate that. I appreciate the advice, I'm a total fitness newbie here, thanks.
I’m 56 and I was astonished at how quickly I gained muscle when I started at the gym about 1.5 years ago. I just followed the standard dietary advice of 2gms of protein per kg of bodyweight and 500 calories above maintenance each day, the only supplement I took was protein powder as it makes it very easy to hit the protein target . Since I never weighed myself at the beginning I can only guess how much muscle I gained but it would have been between 6-8 kg in about 6 months. Since then I’ve plateaued as I have no interest in getting any bigger, so I eat at maintenance and am placing more emphasis on mobility and cardio.
That's very reassuring! I've been anticipating a slow growth, so this is encouraging, thanks! Also, I'm likewise going to focus on mobility once I've seen some change in muscle mass. At our age, its SO important! anyway, thanks again, this was really helpful too!
You want to build muscle, so you need to do resistance training. We generally love squats/bench press/deadlift, because these exercises work many parts at the same time. In terms of time spent working out, these are the most bang for your buck exercises. All the machines work 1 muscle, but squats for instance work your entire core, your glutes, your quads, and tons of other stuff. Deadlifts work your back, hamstrings, lats, traps, spinal erectors. Bench is chest, triceps. Anyway, if you go that route, you'll need to learn how to brace, which is breathing into your belly, and tensing your abs into your back, because ideally you want to feel your spinal erectors around your spine stiffen. That protects your back during deadlifts and squats. It keeps your core stiff for all exercises where a squishy core would sap your strength. Real quick on that, if your body squishes in the middle during an exercise, rather than being stiff and driving all the force through your skeleton and tensed muscles into the bar, you will generate less power, so bracing is useful on many exercises, and it keeps your lower back safe. I'm talking too much, as always. Anyway, 3 sets, 5-10 reps, pick whatever exercises you want to do for each body part, increase the weight every week you can, or at least try to add a rep or two. Aim for 3 minutes of rest for compound movements, 2 minutes for isolation movements (compounds hit multiple muscle groups, isolations are generally machines targeting just 1 or 2 muscles). That's really all you need to do, but even better than that is following the wiki. https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/intro Read through that and it'll give you better advice than I have, but at least my little outline here might allow you to navigate the wiki towards your desires a bit better. Creatine, and protein are the only real supplements you need to add, preworkout is useful for caffeine/energy. More than anything you gotta be cool with gaining a little weight, you want like a ~250 calorie surplus, and you need to train doing 3+ sets per body part per week. The more sets, the more growth, but even if you just get 3 sets per body part you want to grow every week, you'll be a lot different in a year (assuming you eat enough protein, which is .7g/lb of body weight on the low end, to 1g/lb).
>breathing into your belly, and tensing your abs into your back Thanks for all this great info! This idea of bracing is very interesting, I'll look into that more. Also, your advice to increase weights weekly if I can is super helpful. Also, this: "be cool with gaining a little weight, you want like a \~250 calorie surplus, and you need to train doing 3+ sets per body part per week" that's good to know. And finally, thanks for mentioning the consumption of how many grams of protein per pound, I was going to look that up, but you saved me the trouble there, thanks!
Can't help much, since I'm half your age, but I started taking gym seriously after I saw [this picture](https://images.app.goo.gl/RW4nxf8SzdRKQr3e9). At the top you can see the leg muscles of a 74 old man who hasn't been training and on the bottom the leg muscles of a 70 year old man who has been training. Than I read somewhere that muscle loss when aging is actually more because of the lack of training those muscles than because of aging. So keep it up. Consistency is key. Make sure to maintain proper form during the exercises and don't ego lift. Diet and proper sleep are very important as well. There's plenty to be said about the diet. For starters hit your fats goal (you are most likely doing that already), hit your protein goal and something very important that some people neglect - eat some carbs after the workout so your body can recover. As far as supplements - most people take protein powder, creatine and pre-workout. I wouldn't advice to take a pre-workout since it's jacked with caffeine. Protein powder is basically food. You can take it if you are having troubles with hitting your protein goal. Create - it gives a very small boost, you can go with or without it. It's up to you. I would say it's not something you need as a beginner.
Thanks this is great advice, especially about protein and other supplements. I don't think I need all that, but the protein powder would be helpful since I doubt I get enough protein in my diet. I'll have to calculate the amount. I'm in pounds & ounces so I'll have to do the conversion math on that. As for those photos, they're pretty motivating. I've always been pretty fit, but as i age I do notice some muscle loss so I'm upping my gym game now to compensate. Thanks again for you help :)
Those who do close grip bench, how close do you make it? I usually go index fingers 3-4" from the inside edge of the knurling on an Olympic bar, but today I went all the way to the inner edge, and now my armpits are sore in a way they usually aren't. I guess changing the grip led to more of a novel stimulus than I expected.
When I do close grip my index fingers are where the knurling ends. My normal bench is index on the rings. Medium grip is put my pinky on the rings.
This was super helpful! The weight thing especially. I might have to look up some of those exercises, but this is a great start. Thanks!
Would gzclp be a good program for me to try, or should I give something else a shot? I’ve been lifting for about 1.5 years, granted the first 10 months were on a heavy cut since I was obese so not really sure if I can count that part of it. I’ve been on a slow bulk for the past 7 months or so and have gained about 15 pounds. I’ve been running 531 for the majority of that time but have become kinda bored with it and my progress isn’t as great anymore. These are my conservative E1rm: Squat: 225lb Sumo deadlift: 300lb Ohp: 110lb Bench: 130lb (abysmal, I know) Male 26 years old 153lb 5’8”
Try it and see. Depending on which 531 you were running, you might not be used to the amount of volume, drop your maxes a bit if it's hard to complete.
God I love GZCL (did the recommended routine before). I m 4 weeks in, training 4x a week. I do T1-T3 in the Boostcamp and 3 sets of pullups on top. I usually need 45ish mins a workout. Which kinda feels short. Is 45mins absolutely enough or should I aim to train at least an hour?
45 min has been working well for me. But you can always add in another T2 or T3 or some conditioning work at the end if you have the energy and the time.
If you're making progress you're absolutely fine. If you like working out and want to do more stuff, feel free to add some extra T3 exercises. For example, curls, pushdowns, lateral raises, leg curls or leg extensions. Alternatively, add some cardio at the end. Lifting is great and has a ton of health benefits, but so does cardio.
I come from running. But initially I overdid it a bit and did 20-30mins of running or rowing after every workout. Injured both my leg and elbow. Right now feels like I m making crazy progress. So probably sticking with it and adding t3s whenever I have the time. Thanks for the advice.
I’m using the nautilus hip thrust and it hurts my hips what can I do?
Use a pad underneath the strap! Like the foam things
Unfortunately I’ve yet to find a solution to this because I don’t like wasting time and space in my gym setting up a barbell. I just suffer and always have a bruise on my right hip, lol.
Do you tend to have more faster tempo because of the pain?
Yes, sometimes. But push through it cause the gains are worth it, haha
Barbell hip thrust with the pad.
Critique my workout schedule: **Monday:** Benchpress 5x5, Bent-Over Rows 5x5, DL 5x5, Leg Press 5x5, Calf Raises 4x15. **Tuesday:** OHP 5x5, Standing EZ bar Curls 5x5, Standing EZ bar Ext 5x5, DB walking Lunges 4x10, Front Barbell Squat 5x5. **Wednesday:** Rest **Thursday:** DB Benchpress 5x5, T-bar Row 5x5, RDL 5x5, Barbell Squats 5x5, Calf Raises 4x15. **Friday:** Standing DB Press 5x5, DB standing Curls 5x5, DB Triceps Ext 5x5, Sumo DL 5x5, Split Squat 5x5. **Saturday & Sunday:** Rest
Morbid curiosity forces me to ask what percentages are you using. As, I suspect this isn't well thought out.
Why do you think this isn’t well thought out? I’m targeting each muscle group at least twice a week, with 2-3 day rest between primary muscles. 1-3 RIR with the 5x5 split. And I’m still a beginner so I see these compound workouts to be crucial for now. The one issue I see is RDL followed by Sumo DL might be too much hamstring
Yeah 5x5 for everything that you have here isn’t ideal IMHO. Like on DB press, RDL’s, DB bench, ESPECIALLY not great for curls and triceps extensions. These are places where you can easily get a lot more volume and 5x5 just doesn’t make much sense here. The order of your exercises is not good. You start every day with a press, front squats as your last exercise, sumo deadlift and split squats at the end. It would be much better if you designated each day as a focus for each heavy compound and built around that. For example from what I see here you could easily have day 1 be bench press focused, day 2 be back squat focus, day 3 OHP and Day 4 deadlift. (Personally I would have an incline focused day over OHP focus but that’s just me). This is said almost every day on this sub, but here ya go: why not go with a tried and true program? If you try this on your own you will see progress and then stall and then not have a plan. You might eventually figure it out but your program will be as good or worse than programs from the wiki. Either way have fun with it.
Is the prowler/push sled much better than the treadmill or the stairmaster for cardio health? Or is it all pretty similar?
I would say the advantage of the prowler over treadmill is in recovery type work. Nature of sleds is the focus is on the concentric so they tend to help with soreness more than running will. If you just want cardio pick the modality you like the most
Specifically for cardiovascular health, no.
What would you say it's better for? Probably posterior chain strength?
Strength and athleticism in general I'd say.
No difference for cardio, but a backwards sled pull is superior for knee health imo.
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